Mountain View, California — Reinventing the way people watch TV and browse the Web has never been this exciting — at least for now. Search engine giant Google on Monday announced a passel of partnerships for its Google TV service with outfits involved in video, music, and other more: CNBC, HBO, Turner, the NBA, Pandora, Napster, Twitter and more aimed at combining the comforts of TV viewing and the Internet browsing in one.
The search engine giant’s “multimillion-channel TV” system is expected to launch some time this fall. Meanwhile, the company on Monday provided a preview of its upcoming Google TV product, and revealed top names in the television and Internet industry that have agreed to provide content and applications for Google TV, including Turner Broadcasting, NBC Universal, and HBO.
Google TV, which was launched five months ago in San Francisco and is expected to be made available this month, is a combination of hardware developed and engineered in association with Sony, Logitech, and Intel that is designed to unite the Web experience with the television experience, something tech companies have been trying to do for at least a decade.
The devices are expected to arrive this month, with Logitech having scheduled a press conference for Wednesday and Sony following up with its own event next week. Moreover, video content will also be available from companies like Amazon and Netflix, while Twitter said it too would develop an app.
Furthermore, Turner Broadcasting has been improving some of its Web sites for viewing on Google TV, including TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim, which will be available any time through Google TV, Ambarish Kenghe, a developer product manager at Google, wrote in a blog post.
The Google TV home screen, which is getting a little closer to making its public debut. (Credit: Google)
“One of our objectives with Google TV is to ultimately open up the living room and enable new innovation from content creators, programmers, developers and advertisers,” Kenghe, said in the post.
As fascinating as it is, Google TV seems to engross users in a completely new environment while providing a wider range of features and functionality. The search engine giant has indeed launched a website to introduce its newest “baby” via google.com/tv.
Google TV, according to the website, is created to empower users to surf the web while, at the same time, also enjoying their favorite television programs or others more. Users can browse for whatever they want to have on their TV with the search option provided by Google TV, through Google Chrome and the Android software. Users can also switch from Internet to TV programming and vice versa without the hassle of changing the inputs from time to time.
A homepage can also be tailored to access your favorite channels, websites, and applications through the Google TV home screen. You can even program your mobile phone/s to use as the remote control and use your voice to search content. In addition, HBO subscribers will also be able to access over 600 hundred hours of programming on-demand via a Google TV-specific Web site known as HBO GO.
“Featuring award-winning original films, miniseries and series, to comedy, sports and documentaries that are updated continuously, HBO GO also includes exclusive bonus materials, soundtracks and cast information,” HBO wrote on its Facebook page.
Twitter has also devised a Google TV app, the company said in its own blog post.
“The application has most of the features and functionality that you would expect from Twitter. It makes it easy to look through Tweets, @mentions, and favorites,” wrote spokeswoman Carolyn Penner. “When you click on a tweet, you can reply, re-tweet, favorite, or share it. You will also see additional options depending on the content of the tweet.”
Twitter for Google TV will come pre-installed and “also enables you to share videos, web pages, pictures, and other content on Twitter,” Penner said.
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Google joins fellow tech titan Apple in delivering pre-holiday season moves into the world of television. While online entertainment has emerged as a viable option through sites such as YouTube and Hulu, there are still significantly more television viewers than Web users worldwide. Music sites such as VEVO, Pandora and Napster are also developing apps for the platform, as are Amazon Video on Demand, The New York Times and USA Today.
“This is just the beginning,” Kenghe wrote. “Over the next few weeks, you can anticipate to hear from more sites that are enhancing their Web content for the television.”
Google also pushed its Google TV Web site live.