Google this week delivered on its long awaited update to Google TV, called "2.0" by many (even though it's officially version 3.1). Updates on Sony GTV-capable TVs and Blu-ray players started on Monday and continued through Thursday (which is when my Blu-ray updated, darn you Google). Logitech Revue boxes will be updated "shortly afterwards."
In case you're obsessed with the Kardashian divorce and missed the Google TV 2.0 details, the update changed the user interface (UI), installed the current version of the Android OS ("Honeycomb"), updated some applications, and added an Android Market for Google TV apps.
As my Sony Blu-ray only received its update Thursday morning, I didn't get a lot of time with it before writing this. I am a strong believer that you have to "live with" a CE device or service to really get a good sense of how well (or poorly) it provides value.
Nonetheless, after a short test drive, I find Google 2.0 to be different but not necessarily better in most respects, and clearly worse in several specific cases. This is especially disappointing considering the power of the platform to do good rather than muddle about.
The main UI has been modified to be "much simpler" (so says a post on the update on the Google TV blog). I think it's been over-simplified and doesn't show original thinking on how a TV UI might be different than, say, a smartphone. The "home screen" is now a toolbar that can appear over video and a sub-screen called "All Apps" is a phone-like square grid of icons you can scroll through. You can select which icons appear on those menus, but only from a set list. The lack of TV awareness is shown with the All Apps screen. The entire left third is empty, save for a "back" icon. The old GTV UI at least had text links to common features in that left third.
Towards the notion that Google seems to not realize "content is king," the "Spotlight" icon is not on the home toolbar and winds up being pushed down to the second page of the "All Apps" screen. "Spotlight" is the guide to Google TV optimized content apps and sites, most of which feature video. You know, content.
As to content, "TV & Movies" brings up a graphic thumbnail-based guide that can integrate search results from live TV, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, HBO GO, and others. Integration of results is excellent, but thumbnail-based search results suffer from serious lack of information density. If I search for what comedy shows are on TV right now, I get ten results (with no "cursor over" popups with more information as Netflix does on the web). How does seeing only a headshot of Ted Danson and an episode title really help me make a decision on whether or not that "Cheers" episode is what I want to watch?
Where the new update really falls down is on new apps for Netflix and YouTube Leanback. To be honest, these apps were much better on the old OS. I did a compare/contrast with the old GTV on my Logitech Revue, and the old Netflix app provides a left-side text menu that includes managing your Instant Queue and direct access to Genres, as well as abbreviated pop-ups. If the new one has that, I can't find it. My Logitech Revue was my Netflix access device-of-choice previously (in part because I like its full-size keyboard over the Sony's mini controller). When my Logitech unit updates, I'm shifting to my Roku.
The addition of the Android Market to Google TV is long overdue and promises to connect consumers to third-party developers in a way that will spur innovation. But "promises" may be the operative word. At launch, Google TV has only 34 apps "Featured for TV" (optimized for TV). I tried the IMDB app, a natural for a TV-based device. While it had the basic IMDB capabilities, it was not easy to use and lacked the seamless "info-fun" of web-based IMDB.
You can search and install Android apps intended for phones or tablets and, in my limited testing, they seem to work. That said, they will use only the left third of the screen. The fault regarding the user interfaces undoubtedly falls to business decisions being made around Google TV.
These and other aspects of the "new" Google TV are especially disappointing because the base hardware and software is capable of so much more. The platform supports the latest, greatest Android as well as HTML5 and Flash. The core fault seems to lie in the business decisions being made about Google TV. I can't fault third-party content providers and app developers for not spending precious time and money to create GTV-optimized experiences, considering the extremely weak sales of the Sony and Logitech devices.
That being said, there is some help on the way.
Time Warner is set to release full-episode "TV Everywhere" authenticated Google TV apps for TBS and TNT (Time Warner's HBO continues to be the best content experience on GTV with its HBO GO app). And YouTube has announced it will begin a new effort to launch about 100 original content channels from a variety of celebrities and media companies, backed by $100 million in advances (according to a Wall Street Journal report). On this topic, I will wait and see, having witnessed a good number of celeb online video ventures launch and rapidly fade away.
If Google is really serious about Google TV, it needs to step up and prime the pump by spending some of its own abundant cash on best-of-breed third-party developers to innovate on the UI and create standout apps for the "must have" content services (for example Netflix and YouTube). I hope it does so, as an innovation-rich Google TV would be a strong landscape driver for OTT and TV platform advancement.
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