Google lets viewers search via their TV sets

The service will let viewers in the US search and view content from TV providers, the Internet, mobile applications and their own personal content library.

Google TV will initially be incorporated into television sets and Blu-ray players manufactured by Sony, with the first products due to launch in the US this autumn.

The platform is built on Google's own Android operating system, and runs the Google Chrome Web-browser on specially enable Digital TVs. Sony, will be selling TVs in the US with Google TV built-in from autumn of this year.

Google has also teamed up with Logitech to develop a set-top box that plugs into existing sets at around the same time later this year

Both Sony's Internet TV and Logitech's companion box will be running on Intel's Atom CE4100 CPU. Both devices will be sold at Best Buy stores in the US. Pricing information was not revealed.

Google TV will be running in Adobe Flash, the same platform YouTube uses.

How it works

Using a "special universal remote", a search bar will pop up on top of the TV screen. Searching for the show "House," for example, will show you the next time the show is on TV, allowing you to program it to your DVR.

It will also display results from the Web. Search returns will also provide Internet options – if there are no scheduled airings of "House," users can switch to streaming episodes available on Amazon or Hulu.

One of the more interesting features is the ability to use your Android-based phone as a remote, and to speak your commands. Pairing the phone to Google TV over Wi-Fi, users can talk into the phone and get results on the TV screen. Multiple phones can be used at the same time, and users can send content from their phones to the TV.

Google also demonstrated a translation tool that will let users select a language and receive translated captions for whatever program is playing on live TV.

A YouTube executive also showed off YouTube Lean Back, a YouTube TV channel of sorts that will automatically start playing a personalized feed of videos when you click to it.

UK Plans

Google has said it is not planning on bringing Google TV to the UK, saying that it has "no plans beyond the US at this stage".

The company’s chief executive Eric Schmidt has said that it is "unlikely" that the firm will bid for television rights, despite moving into the digital TV market.

However, Schmidt said that the company does not expect to start competing for TV rights with traditional broadcasters as that is not "our business".

"My own opinion is it's unlikely that we would go and then start competing with the traditional broadcast networks for sports rights," he said at a Google Zeitgeist roundtable.

"That's not our business. It's more a question of can we build a platform which they can use to get even broader functions and even broader rights. I would much rather be the platform provider to those people than to compete with them."

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