Google launched a new Google TV site today, and announced some new content and app partnerships. A few of the apps that will come pre-installed on Google TV devices are Twitter, Pandora, and Netflix.
Each of these companies is talking about their respective Google TV experiences today. From the sounds of it, users are going to be in for some cool things.
Twitter’s Carolyn Penner says, "The application has most of the features and functionality that you’d expect from Twitter. It makes it easy to look through Tweets, @mentions, and favorites. When you click on a Tweet, you can reply, retweet, favorite, or share it. You will also see additional options depending on the content of the Tweet. For example, you can visit a URL or click a hashtag to search for it on Twitter. If a user is mentioned, you can visit that user’s profile to see their Tweets or follow them. And if there is a link to a photo or video, you can see a thumbnail version. Clicking the link will take you to the site so you can see a larger version of the photo or watch the video."
Pandora’s Tom Conrad says, "We’re excited about what the Google TV platform means for the future of the Consumer Electronics device industry and for the last few months we’ve been working together with the Google TV team to deliver a Pandora experience that was built to take full advantage of the TV experience. With Pandora for Google TV you can easily tune in to the personalized stations you’ve created on the web or on your phone, listen, and rate songs with a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. You can even create new stations right on Google TV. It’s great for parties too — as you listen, the screen updates with big beautiful album art and information that illustrates what’s playing – a great conversation piece for you and your guests."
Netflix actually didn’t reveal much about its app specifically, but it will likely operate like the service does on other devices. Users are anxiously awaiting an Android app for Netflix. Given Google TV’s Android integration, it’s probably not too far off. Netflix’s Rich Ezekiel does say, "We’ll continue to work hard to maximize the flexibility for how, where, and when you want to instantly watch TV shows and movies streamed from Netflix."
John Biggs at CrunchGear says Google TV’s secret weapon will video calls from the TV, because of Logitech’s Revue product and its ability to work with HD cameras. He calls to mind the buzz around Apple’s FaceTime. He certainly makes an interesting point.