Google tries television, again

Google is making another effort to translate their success on the web to television, hoping to take advantage of a vast new market in spite of the lukewarm reception consumers gave to the company’s first offer of Google TV.

The search engine has released a renewed version of their service, which gives viewers a new way to combine the Internet and television on the same screen, with new functions designed to make the product more consumer-friendly and appealing.

The new 2.0 version of Google TV offers new tools for recommending films, television programs and on-line videos and facilitates the creation of new applications television screen for software developers.

"Many people really want to use the web in their living room", the Vice-President of Google Product Management, Mario Queiroz, affirmed, as the head of Google TV recognized as being  "a long-term bet".

There has been great progress during the past year and next year there will be much more
"I do not know exactly in which month it will take off", he affirmed in statements to Reuters during a demonstration of the new product at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. "I think that great progress has been made over the past year and this coming year there will be much more", he added.

Google TV –which currently comes incorporated into some Sony television models and in the Logitech International de-codifiers - allows consumers to access on-line videos and Internet sites from their television and play with specialized applications.

Scant success in US market

Google does not provide any figures on how many users it has for Google TV. It was set in motion in the United States last October, but it was heavily criticized and was blocked by the country’s three main networks. Many analysts say that the 1.0 version of the product was a failure.

Google TV has had scant success with American consumers. In order for them to access these services, they have to purchase a device (set top box) so that their tv’s stop being just a goggle box.

According to experts, the price of 299 dollars (213.60 euros) for the Google TV’s cheapest device was far too high.

The vast majority of American industry, not to mention many telecommunications companies, has viewed Google’s entrance into television with distrust and accuses them of stealing their income by advertising without contributing to the expenses of the program creation.

Google has sustained its ambition in the television terrain for a long time now, hoping to expand their on-line advertising business, with which the company earned more than 19.200 million euros (28.000 million dollars) last year.