Google TV: You got Chocolate in my Peanutbutter!!

Day Two of the Google I/O conference had the announcement I was waiting for yesterday - Google TV.  Google TV is their foray into adding Internet functionality to traditional broadcast TV.  This isn't the first time this idea has been tried, but none of the past attempts have really taken off (the Yahoo widgets was the last big one that springs to mind).  Google marched out a variety of partner companies (and there CEOs) to discuss and show off features of GTV (noticeably absent, as you'd imagine, was Apple).  GTV is built on Android, so developers already familiar with the platform can get started on a variety of applications designed to bring web functionality to our TV's.

The demos led off with an example of searching (in a very familiar google search bar) for live TV content, which could them be programmed to record to the DVR.  Further examples showed finding content that was both live, on various websites, plus available on Amazon Video on Demand.  This is identical to functionality Tivo showed off earlier int he year for its new Tivo Premiere.

Additional features highlighted in NewTeeVee's post include:

• Personalization through Netflix integration
• Picture-in picture mode to access web content and live TV feeds
• Bookmarks for websites as well as TV channels
• Access to web-based media sites like Flickr

They made a point (repeatedly) of stating hardware that enables all of this would be available this fall in time for the christmas shopping season.  That does seem quite early, but in all fairness, i'd much rather have this oversold to me than the 3D hype we currently are suffering through.