Google’s foray into the television industry has been talked about since the Big G launched video search last year, and subsequently began working with TiVo last April. And now a recent Google job posting, several interesting domain registrations, and the GoogleNet buzz, which will allow pinpoint ad targeting, are evidencing a buildup to the next generation of television.
It’s not just Google, but Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and most likely some incarnation of Fox that will move this revolution. Yahoo! has already moved into Hollywood as insiders all over are already calling it the 5th network (how quickly they forget UPN!). And Google, in true form, will not be lagging behind on this development.
Nathan Weinberg points us to Adam Lasnik’s quick-draw observation of a job posting at the Googleplex. The company that is going to bring us GoogleNet is searching for a Google TV product manager responsible for enhancing “users’ Television viewing experience.”
This is not surprising as it is exciting; everyone’s been waiting with bated breath.
“I’ve been waiting to see some movement on this for a while, ever since the Sergey Brin paper on TV search,” says Weinberg.
At the beginning of this year, Danny Sullivan, a California transplant living in the UK, was thrilled to find his beloved Pasadena Rose Parade via a search done through Windows Media Center-a search that, for nearly a decade before, had eluded him.
It is this type of global television search utility that Google is destined to provide with the help of products like Windows Media Center, and even upcoming “entertainment hubs” provided by Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. These are the roots of a massive communication and tech convergence that will allow entertainment and infotainment seekers in the future to view anything anytime anywhere-a possibility that may have seemed ludicrous just 20 years ago.
And if there were any doubt at all remaining that this is going to happen, and soon, just check out this list of domains registered to our revolutionary friends in Mountain View:
googletelevision.net
googlehd.net
googlehdtv.net
googlehidef.com
Welcome to the future’s front row.
