Get ready for Google to be on your television.
The internet search engine giant plans to unveil a new way of watching Web content on televisions, via a Google operating system of sorts, at a conference in San Francisco.
“Google has been really itching to get at the $60 billion TV advertising market for years,” says Richard Doherty, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group. “It’s been working on Google TV longer than even Android (the operating system for cellphones), but it’s taken this long to get ready.”
The initiative is Google’s attempt to bring its multibillion-dollar advertising system to TVs, Doherty and other tech analysts say. Google reported earnings of nearly $15 billion in 2009, almost all generated by little text ads that appear near search results.
Google is expected to be working with a host of partners including Sony, which will have the Google channels as part of new TVs in stores either this year or next. Google and Sony declined comment.
Google is staging a big conference for software developers this week.
“If Google was doing this by itself, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but to have the developers see Sony on stage means this is serious, not just another promise,” says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Many new TVs are deemed “Internet-ready” and can offer select Web channels for viewing over Wi-Fi, but Doherty says the presentation is often poor.
“Google wants to give a quality TV and advertising experience,” he says. “As more and more TV goes on a personal schedule, Google wants to be the screen where the shows are viewed.”
Some 1.5 million Internet-ready TVs have been sold, and that will grow to 11 million next year, says Forrester.
McQuivey says that if Google can persuade folks to “sign-in” when they watch TV as they often do online, it can pass on to advertisers vital data including age and viewing habits. “If anyone should be scared about this announcement, it’s Comcast (the No. 1 cable operator),” he says.
Meanwhile, Google on Wednesday introduced an online video format to compete with Adobe’s beleaguered Flash, which has come under fire from Apple. Google said it hopes the new video format, VP8, will become the dominant way to show videos on the Web and mobile phones.
As it does with most new programs, Google is giving the video code away for free.
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