XCSFDHG46767FHJHJF
tdp2664 InvestorPlace This is how an industry changes: An old technology butts up against a new technology, and the businesses controlling both distrust one another until the dividing lines between the technologies blur and ultimately disappear. Here at the end of 2011, it’s television that’s going through this metamorphosis. Cable companies are becoming streaming video companies , broadcast content is becoming web content, and computer technology companies are becoming television manufacturers . Google ( NASDAQ : GOOG ) made strides to ease this process along in late 2010 with its ill-fated Google TV project. It failed miserably, but now Google is refreshing the project. Google TV’s rebirth might do more than just secure Google’s place in the television business, though — Google TV might be the key to finally making YouTube the profit driver it hoped for when Google purchased it five years ago. Google TV is a platform, used in Sony (NYSE: SNE ) televisions and Logitech ( NASDAQ : LOGI ) set-top boxes, that lets users search for television shows. Results come from the web, broadcast and the user’s cable service in equal measure. Google TV was, at release, a complete failure, savaged by critics, ignored by consumers and bombed by content providers like News Corp. ( NASDAQ : NWS ), who blocked the platform from accessing its web-based content. The new Google TV update, announced by Google on Friday , looks to remedy many of the basic problems that plagued it in 2010. Improvements include a streamlined user interface that doesn’t obscure shows or movies, as well as a superior search feature that pulls results from services like Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX ), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and Time Warner ‘s (NYSE: TWX ) HBO Go. The new Google TV also supports the Android App Market — a feature that should enthuse the huge population of Android-powered smartphone users that would like to enjoy the same entertainment at home. The most significant feature of the update, however, is the changes it brings to YouTube. YouTube content is emphasized in Google TV’s revamped search tools, but the YouTube app itself has been rebuilt for viewing on HD television sets. As Venture Beat ‘s Devindra Hardawar wrote on Sunday, Google is going to closely tie its new, original YouTube content to Google TV — content it has invested some $100 million into.
No comments:
Post a Comment