Nobody has their hands in as many industries as Google. Nobody.
As early as this summer, we may begin to see GoogleTV – the internet TV joint venture between Google, Sony and Intel – taking over our living rooms. The service would allow internet streaming content to be broadcast on your TV as easily as you can change channels. But that’s obvious. With a set-top box being provided by Sony, a chip by Intel, and Googlemancy by Google, the affair would seem to raise an odd question for the search giant: why so hardware-serious? With Google’s legendary penchant for web-based everything, the answer is almost certainly ease-of-use.
Perhaps a bigger question, perhaps with a similar answer, is why Google would be so adamant to try this in the first place, given the rocky road that has been the history of merging the computer desk with the home theater. AppleTV? Microsoft Media Center? The two mediums have been like chalk and cheese, due largely in part to the fact that computer peripherals to date have been very un-livingroom-friendly.
But Google has a secret weapon: Logitech, who are reportedly developing new peripherals specifically for the GoogleTV experience. This could be an exciting summer.
Hey, what’s HotBot up to these days? Does anyone remember HotBot? No? Just Me? Never mind.
[Via Wired]
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