The Philippine Online Chronicles

Is Google TV how humans going forward would be consuming information and entertainment?

The world died just a bit when Google introduced Google TV, and when Google partnered with Flash.

“Could we switch to another box?”  It was annoying to see how the setup kept failing on stage and the image reinforced horrors of blue screens of death. The world so used to perfected Steve Jobs keynote, everyone else seem so amateurish.

Trivialities aside, the past week certainly cements the fact that this is no longer a phony war between Apple and Google.

This is quite obviously the opening stage of the real war between Apple and Google.

Introducing Google TV

Television is essentially a dumb device that does its best job of receiving passive data.  Everyone’s efforts into turning it into something fit for the 21^st century has failed flat.  Google TV attempts to change that or does it?

Google TV is a software platform based on Android, Google’s operating system for devices.  Simply put, Android is the Windows for devices.  Google’s Android can now be installed in a Television, in media players like DVD players and Blu-Ray players.

Google is following the Microsoft formula of writing the software but not caring about the hardware and letting its partners make the hardware.

Google TV allows for the marriage of the television experience and the web.  If you want to know when a particular television program you follow, simply search and it will let you know if it is available right now for viewing or if the hardware allows it, enable the DVR to save it for later viewing.

Google TV uses Google Chrome, which is a web browser based on WebKit that ironically was incubated by rival, Apple.

Google plans to integrate this technology with real television setups.  The question of course is, how does this work in other territories beyond the United States?

Why Google TV

The answer is quite a no brainer.

Is 70 billion dollars enough reason?

Google’s push into television, no matter how few they sell is all about the advertising revenue.  Google’s real interest is advertising.  They are so obsessed with advertising that all their metrics point to delivering the best and most scientific numbers about every point of interaction between users and a brand for marketers and ad agencies to processes.

Advertising is Google’s bread and cheese.  If Apple is so obsessed with perfected craftsmanship of their product, Google is as obsessed with Advertising.

Google is now what the great media companies of the past decade were.  Google is now like the newspapers of yesteryears.  That’s where the advertising money is going.  And Google wants it all.

The push into Google TV highlights that decision more than anything else.  This is Google monetizing search and how it can organize the world’s information and how to deliver relevant information to users.

Television would just be another vector into Google’s servers and a pathway into a bigger chunk of the advertising revenue.

What is Google TV’s endgame?

The question now exists, would Google TV succeed?

It is so easy for old biases to slip in.

Old Media is a one-to-many interaction.

The Internet is freedom.   It is about many to many interactions.

From the Philosophical standpoint, the marriage of Old Media and the New Media of Internet in the way Google TV does it, seem so archaic.  It seems like a throwback.

Instead of emancipating the world from mind numbing content that comes from a single source of information, Google gave that world a lifeline. Instead of pushing for New Media and everything on the Internet, Google now forces the world to regress and make Old Media the dominant power.

Today, the world died just a bit.

There is only one reason why Google acted the way it acted, it wants a piece of 70 billion worth of advertising revenue.  From the Capitalism point of view, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.  From the Engineering point of view, the infrastructure could be built.  From the philosophical point of view, the world regressed.

Google innovated backwards.  Google didn’t innovate forward.  It simply transformed Google search into TV Guide.

Google is now the champion of the Old Guard.  They’ve surrendered their hacker ethos for their silver dollar.   Apple isn’t the new Microsoft.  Google is the new Microsoft! So much for openness that Google prides itself in.

Google lost me when you said, “we should switch to the other box.”

You did.

Do no evil?  That’s exactly what Google did.

Philosophy aside, how do you make TV meet the 21^st Century?

Television is essentially a dumb device that does its best job of receiving passive data.  Everyone’s efforts into turning it into something fit for the 21^st century has failed flat.

Google search is best for information that you already know or are looking for, but it is difficult for a person to discover new things with it. A directory-like presentation with the search box on the side, and categories arranging shows, in other words an Amazon or an iTunes-like presentation captivates and delivers greater context.

For a per channel basis, the best presentation of the television experience so far is from the StockTwits TV.

Another Internet New Media push that delivers great content is the TWiT Netcast Network.

A way must be found to be able to essentially control the television from a device--- an iPad, a Mac, a PC and essentially turn this into an algorithm: “OK television, I want to watch TWiT on the big screen.  Stream this channel, right now.”

There must be a way for an algorithm like this: “so House is online right now, ok, computer, divert this stream to the living room TV and alert my girlfriend that this show is starting” to exist.

A push notification then appears on the girlfriend’s iPhone or Android device letting her know a show is starting.  But she’s on the road and won’t make it until the episode is over. There must be an option for her to set so that the episode is saved on TV and flagged for later viewing.

Why Google TV falls flat

At the end of the day, Google TV falls flat on two things: it doesn’t really innovate; it simply transformed itself into a glorified TV Guide.  Google TV is a stopgap measure and the world needs to look somewhere else for the ultimate television slash content experience.  The second is that, Google TV undermines the development happening in Internet TV content.  For the price of having a bite off 70 billion dollars in advertising revenue, it is quite understandable.

On the case of will Google TV be successful?  The best use case is that if it could be used in every market in the world, with minimal setup to do so.  It could take off.  Unless you could do that then Google TV will join past approaches to television and in six months the world would say, let's move a long.  It is a safe bet that it will.  In that regard is Google also the new Microsoft.  There is great sadness in that too.

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Screenshot by Author