Google TV: What does it change for us as viewers?
One of the major announcements that people were looking forward to from Google in the IO 2010 conference was that of Google TV. Google is attempting something which a lot of different players have aimed to achieve with varying degrees of success. The initial Google TV vendor is going to be Sony, which will launch the first Google enabled TV and in partnership with Logitech offer a Google TV box similar to one of the HD players like Roku and others. Apple which had something similar in mind must would be kicking itself for missing the bus.
The concept here isn't something radical. What Google is promising is to bring the web to the TV and enable seamless access across the 2 platforms. This might sound vaguely familiar to the experience you get currently out of your Media center connected PC, your PS3 or XBox 360. All of these devices offer some sort of web access to enable content from the internet to be streamed on your TV. But Google wants to make the experience of consuming media platform agnostic. Effectively this eliminates the need to connect to separate devices for your cable and internet needs. For this to be achieved Google has partnered with various companies including Dish Network, Comcast amongst others to provide a unified device. Android obviously fits in the role of the OS perfectly. Android was designed as an OS to operate on various devices, not just mobile. And this might be the first major use of it in a non-mobile format.
What does all this mean for an average viewer. Traditional cable systems are just too outdated to be even existent in the current era. Its amazing that TV and the broadcasting industry has seen so little change in the content delivery format over years. You still can't search for shows, look for old episodes, have any interactive capabilities or filter content based on personal choices. Media discovery is still ridiculously cumbersome. The phrase 'Skipping channels' has been in existence since more than 30 years. Google TV is the first step to changing the whole setup by offering a web like interface to discover videos from everywhere. Be it shows from your cable, or videos from youtube or even browsing the internet, its all possible through your television set now. This is definitely exciting for an average viewer because frankly no one cares where the content comes from, you should be able to consume it whenever and wherever you need it.
However, one must keep in mind that this is still a first step. Its like lot of those new devices which have Android on it but don't really know what to do with it. Google is just expecting us to find content through the web browser and view it on our TV. Honestly with a few modifications my PS3 should be able to the same things and so should my media center PC with Boxee on it. The more exciting aspect of all this is that the idea of media integration and platform independent viewing is finally taking ground. Hopefully with more companies jumping in and more partnerships we'll see the long overdue revolution in TV.