Google Inc. is seeking to make an ambitious bid to extend its reach into the living room when it debuts its Internet television software this week.
Through a joint initiative with other prominent companies, the Web search giant is expected to showcase technology that viewers can use to flip seamlessly among familiar shows, YouTube videos and home videos on their sets.
Called Smart TV, the software is expected to be built into Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes. It has not been disclosed when the first devices will be available to consumers.
Google and partners Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Logitech International SA plan to unveil the new platform Thursday at a conference in San Francisco for 3,000 software programmers in hopes of generating a flurry of independent development.
“The revolution we’re about to go through is the biggest single change in television since it went color,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini told analysts last week.
Google isn’t the first online company to make a grab for the TV. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, manufacturers displayed a plethora of televisions, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes with Internet services.
Yahoo Inc. was among the first technology companies to make Internet sites such as Facebook and Twitter accessible on the TV.
But the idea hasn’t caught on widely, partly because of the limitations of the services.
Although Google isn’t sharing details of Smart TV before the event, analysts say the venture has a shot at success because of the power of the partnerships the company has built.
“Google making an announcement on its own is one thing,” said James McQuivey, media analyst with Forrester Research. “Making it with Sony is considerably different.”
Putting its software inside televisions and set-top boxes could open up a new world of opportunities for Google to extend its wildly profitable advertising and search businesses, experts say.
