Google TV Features: Why It Could 'Change The Way People Live Their Lives' (VIDEO)

Just a few days before Logitech is to unveil its Google TV offerings, Google has posted a more detailed profile of Google TV, outlining features, content partners, and more.

Google TV, described by Google as a "platform that combines your current TV programming and the open web into a single, seamless entertainment experience," offers you the option of accessing "the entire Internet" on your television screen, from YouTube videos to Flickr photos, Flash games to Twitter. You'll even be able to "search your television": "Google TV lets you seamlessly search all of the content on your TV, the web, and apps - then access it with a single click. You can also easily switch between TV and the web without having to change inputs on your television," Google explains (Watch an intro to Google TV here).

Google announced content partnerships with NBC Universal, HBO, and Turner Broadcasting, among others, and said that Google TV will offer access to Amazon Video On Demand as well as Netflix.

Google TV will also support a host of apps from sites like Pandora, Napster, and Twitter (See video below).

Twitter says of its Google TV app:

The application has most of the features and functionality that you'd expect from Twitter. It makes it easy to look through Tweets, @mentions, and favorites. When you click on a Tweet, you can reply, retweet, favorite, or share it. You will also see additional options depending on the content of the Tweet.

Will it be a hit? Here's what some are saying:

CrunchGear: I think the real killer app will be video calling using devices like Logitech's Google TV box, the Revue. Although not mentioned on the site, it is clear that the Revue will work with Logtiech HD cameras like the C910. While we've been able to make Skype video calls on PCs, mobile phones, and laptops for years, imagine if you could do it from the comfort of your couch.

Business Insider: Google TV is going to be costly, probably hundreds of dollars, and most people probably won't want to pay it. [...] This looks like what Apple's new Apple TV should be more like, though this is a textbook case of how Apple and Google are different companies. [...] What we're seeing right now are mockups and the work of a marketing department. We haven't seen the software in use yet, and it might not be very good.

Blip.tv CEO Mike Hudack wrote in a blog post: Every once in a while a product comes along which promises to change the way people live their lives. Google TV is one such product. We've had a Google TV in our New York office for a few months now. It's good. Very good. The main reason why it's so good is that it, once and for all, demolishes the boundary between traditional broadcast and cable television and Internet video. People with a Google TV will no longer differentiate. It will be as easy to watch a blip show as it will be to watch a CBS show. This is fundamentally good for producers and this is fundamentally good for viewers. (Note: Google announced that it had been working with blip.tv to optimize its content for Google TV)

Learn more about Google TV's features here. See what critics are saying about the new Apple TV here.

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Comments

[sazbad]

08:46 PM on 10/28/2010

What's the point of this TV? Is not it same what we get on a PC except a large screen? There is basic difference between the conception of TV and a PC. On PC you decide what to see and on TV the broadcaster decide what to see. I think sometimes we need moments where we don't want to use our brain to get the entertainment rather we just sit down and see what's been broadcast.

Fundamentally, I like TV to be dedicated to channels. I am tired of getting the same thing on PC, on mobile phone, on TV etc. Basically everything is a computer with OS.

[Jim Forrest]

09:38 AM on 10/08/2010

This is great for all you big city people who have Fios and cable. What has Google done lately for all of us in rural (and not-so rural) America that only have dial-up or really lame satellite connections? I am constantly amazed at all of the technical effort and innovation going into creating gadgets for people with high-speed connections, but no effort (or money) is going into helping rural America get fast, affordable connections. An entire generation of kids and young adults are being left behind.

[peterla]

05:30 PM on 10/06/2010

At $300 for another set top box, Google will have tons of better competition: Tivo, Slingbox, Xbox, Roku, Boxee, Apple, and free web based solutions like Livestation and Hulu.

The winner will of this market will strike a deal and imbed the set top box into the TV so it is seamless. We don't need any more hardware devices. Imbed.

[mezcal]

09:34 PM on 10/05/2010

I don't get it.
Does this do something I can't already do with my HTPC?

[netzwerg]

05:53 PM on 10/05/2010

Will they integrate www.piratebay.org or rapidshare.com into google TV?

If not, it's useless.

[Tulka2]

05:27 PM on 10/05/2010

When i first heard about Google t.v. coming autumn 2010, i know i heard two-hundred dollars.  Considering you can get a little box from Netflix for one-hundred dollars....or a Wee thingy can access the net too....?  How much do you think the market will bear? 

[Said One]

05:09 PM on 10/05/2010

Williee6

One can only do a  la carte with shows that are already on - or are off the air. One can't exactly do a la carte with new shows that the networks sign up for since one doesn't know how good or bad they will be. And one doesn't want to be stuck and locked into a bad a la carte menu

[InnocentBystander]

04:57 PM on 10/05/2010

Too bad for Roku...they were there 1st, but didn't quite get the 1 piece of the puzzle that would have put them way out front... browser functionality that would allow direct access to the net. Maybe there's still time. I'd include a more sophisticated remote, maybe with a touchpad to allow cursor control.

[Carbon Forteetoo]

04:28 PM on 10/05/2010

Great! Now we'll never have to get off the couch.

[jjmummert]

07:55 AM on 10/06/2010

Just what I was thinking.

[Said One]

04:27 PM on 10/05/2010

jp

Also Nike has currently started an appreciation of big butts campaign or something so they could advertise on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJYtmNDk0k
The baby got back episode that links from the youtube clip - punchline. Babies that are all about the a$$ are all about Nikes too.
They get a ready made punch line which they'd have to spend millions on in terms of traditional advertising campaigns and all the viewers etc.

And in this way Google attracts a range of people who would never normally even have considered advertising for their businesses and also people paying millions on ad campaigns that currently aren't even guaranteed to work or deliver a memorable punchline, they get money and they attract more people to youtube as the ordinary person on youtube advertising - sends the clips to all their friends in their Facebook, Twitter etc contact list, people watching the shows on Google Tv are grateful because its free, the person advertising gets to reach a wider audience i.e people all over the world.

Win, win, win situation and all from just one series, imagine they did this with more.

[Said One]

04:15 PM on 10/05/2010

jp
I agree that if Google goes the partnership with  with NBC Universal, HBO or Turner Broadcasting,etc route, they are just going to be redundant and like all those mobile manufacturers who come up with iphone clone after clone. As it currently is the service Google is offering does seem a bit redundant - why go to google for NBC's current tv options when I can just turn on the TV, also the whole "seemless" integration just seems to be a fancy way of saying "changing the channel".

But where I do think they have a leg up is in the youtube base and the opening Tv up to businesses of all sorts who want an opportunity to advertise.

Lets say this youtube clip of Friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_BdPUv-Xbs
I'm an interior designer browsing the clips, and I always wanted an opportunity to advertise on my favorite TV show, unfortunately Friends is no longer on, also I don't have that much money to spend on a marketing/advertising company for my business, so I advertise on the Google TV episode that links from the youtube clip - punchline - interior design done not like a Koala Bear and my firm's contact details. I pay youtube for a week's worth of advertising, so I get all the views from people just browsing through the youtube clip, I also can email this to all my friends since its not technically an ad and won't get just viewed as spam, chances are a few of them will find the clip funny and email it to their friends, and I have a ready base of people advertising my company and they don't even know it and with minimal effort on my part.

The people watching the episode are grateful since my ads keep their favorite tv show free, I get the marketing minus hiring an expensive firm, I get to have a blast from the past - an opportunity I never would have had - to advertise on my favorite show etc.

To be continued in next post............

[Tulka2]

04:12 PM on 10/05/2010

Comcast and other cable providers will keep their customers if they give customers an a la carte menu.  For instance, i am paying for at least 6 religious channels i don't want, have blocked on my remote and Comcast tells me every month how lucky to get so many channels.  I want to pick and choose.  I want to only pay for what i watch.  It would be so easy for Comcast. 

I am old enough to remember what a pain it was to put an index in a book.  Can you imagine how difficult before computers a word search was?  What a delight to push a button and have a computer do it for you.  Here's the thing.... same technology.  Just tweak it for a new application.  No reason Comcast cannot give us a choice in what we pay for.  The cable companies are so greedy. 

Here's the rub for me... Many years ago, when cable first came to my little berg, we went out to dinner and were sat next to the scion of the family that got the Comcast franchise for this town.  He had a big table of people and he was making a show of paying for everything.  Finally, when all his sails were up and he was well and truly drunk, he said in a loud voice that the cable t.v. business "was a license to print money".  That unpleasant night along with the memory of how America was first sold on the idea of cable: "Americans with cable will pay for shows and will no longer have to sit through commercials."  Ouch. 

[WileE116]

04:28 PM on 10/05/2010

I agree. I would remain with a cable provider if they offered an a la carte menu that I can choose.

[zenlikejen]

04:59 PM on 10/05/2010

I agree with the a la carte idea...but I seem to recall having that discussion with someone who said that something like that would end up killing many of the "niche" channels that survive as part of the packages these providers sell...but my memory sucks, so I could be off about that.

[Tulka2]

05:24 PM on 10/05/2010

My mother will miss daily mass on the Catholic channel, but you know what....?  If Catholics can not support it on television, Google will be able to find it. 

[jpsoraire]

03:57 PM on 10/05/2010

Just got my Apple TV...oooh, sorry Google. Your TV Platform lost.... By a "Google".

[inreasonsimage]

02:40 PM on 10/05/2010

So if I want to watch a cable channel with this I have to have a cable subscription? Lame. I'm still waiting for a device that lets me order channels a la carte for a couple dollars per month. There are only 4-5 channels I actually want but cable and satellite providers make me purchase entire packages. Throw in a NFL channel like the Roku has for baseball and I'd shell out the $100-$200 for a device in a second.

[Said One]

02:43 PM on 10/05/2010

I agree that Google shouldn't go into partnership with NBC Universal, HBO or Turner Broadcasting, I think they should rather look at their youtube database, buy the rights to the most viewed TV shows from there rather, and then let people pay to put ads on Google TV, right before the episode starts. This means anybody can advertise on their favorite TV show, an advantage that is not available currently, and with that money, they can buy popular user generated content

[Said One]

02:29 PM on 10/05/2010

Though I do think Google should rethink going into partnership with NBC Universal, HBO, and Turner Broadcasting, among others, and said that Google TV will offer access to Amazon Video On Demand as well as Netflix.

Since that just equals more of the same and whats already out there. They should instead look at their youtube database and just buy the rights to some of the most viewed and popular TV shows on youtube first, that would also stop other networks and rival TV apps from using the TV shows, and then do a trial run on one of the youtube threads.