Google TV

May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. introduced software that puts Web content on television to persuade more consumers to use the Internet in their living rooms and view advertisements that generate revenue.
The new tool, Google TV, will work with Intel Corp. chips in products by Sony Corp. and Logitech International SA, Google said today at a conference in San Francisco.
The companies are trying to benefit from growing demand for Web-based programming and information on large screens, in more rooms of the house. Google, with the largest share of online advertising, wants a slice of the $175 billion TV-ad market. Intel aims to land its chips, already in about 80 percent of the world’s personal computers, into a wider range of electronics.
“Television is becoming the true third window, with the computer and the phone, allowing you to access what you want when you want it,” Eric Kim, who heads Intel’s digital home division, said in an interview. “The dumb tube is turning into an intelligent device, a smart TV.”
Google TV serves as an “entertainment hub” that lets viewers search channels, recorded shows and websites, Google said in a video on its YouTube entertainment site.
Google fell $19.42 to $475.01 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Mountain View, California-based Google has declined 23 percent this year.
The company isn’t currently selling ads specifically designed for the new platform, said Rishi Chandra, a product manager at Google. Users could see Google’s ads as they browse Web sites when accessing the Internet on the new TV service.
Rethinking Ads
“We want to get the product experience right first,” Chandra said. “Over time, there will be opportunities to really rethink how ads can actually work better on this TV experience.”
The service will include video-on-demand products from Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Hulu, a video site partly owned by Walt Disney Co., Google said at the conference.
“There is still no better medium to reach a wider and broader audience than the television,” Rishi said during the company’s developers’ conference in San Francisco. “Video should be consumed on the biggest and brightest screen in the house.”
Google has adapted a version of its Android software and Chrome Internet browser to display television programming from cable and satellite sources and video from the Web. Applications that have been written for existing versions of Android, used in mobile phones, will now work on television screens.
Logitech Box
Sony will begin selling a range of televisions and Blu-Ray players “in the fall” that use the new software running on Intel chips, Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer said today at the event. Logitech will sell a box that sits between satellite and cable boxes and televisions that will display their programming alongside video and information from the Web.
Dish Network Corp., the second-largest U.S. satellite- television provider, will begin using the software on some of its set-top boxes. Best Buy Co., the largest consumer electronics retailer, will showcase the new products when they go on sale.
During the presentation, Google also unveiled a new version of its Android operating system for mobile phones. Called Android 2.2, the new iteration is faster and has more features tailored for business users, Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering, said at the conference