The coolest thing about Google TV is that we don’t even know what the coolest thing about it will be.
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That’s a marketing spiel promoting Google TV, and it’s meant to signify a bright future for Google in the living room. But it also reflects more truth than perhaps the search giant intended about where Google TV is right now. For all its promise, I’m still channel-surfing Google TV for that coolest thing.
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To be sure, there’s good stuff in Google’s new software platform for high-definition television, starting with a universal search feature that exploits Google’s traditional strengths and helps people prowl the Internet for video entertainment.
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But Google TV is a mixed bag at a time when it faces competition from Apple, Boxee, Microsoft, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, TiVo, Vizio, Yahoo and other consumer electronics and TV rivals who sell boxes of services that in one way or another exploit the Internet on TV.
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Much has changed since the mid-1990s when a start-up called WebTV Networks first tried to convince consumers that accessing the Internet on a TV was worth doing. Speedy broadband connections for the masses were largely a pipe dream then; now they’re prevalent, as are HDTVs. The Web itself has evolved into a mecca for video and entertainment.
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Google’s proposition is that the TV and Web mesh together, so that folks need not switch inputs on their television to benefit from both. And with its Chrome browser, Google is the only one of the leading contenders to offer consumers a regular Web browser on the TV. Apple TV, for example, is mostly about watching movies and TV shows or streaming pictures, videos and music from iTunes; there are no third-party apps or browser for now.
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In this early round, however, Google TV still doesn’t go far enough. You can get a new Sony…