INBOX:THERE SEEMS to be no let-up in the incursion Google wants to make into our lives, and its latest moves extend the reach of the search giant into the living room.
Late last week it launched a free beta version of Google Media Server, a Windows application that will try to bridge the gap between a PC and a TV (download it from http://tinyurl.com/5c8b6z).
It makes a lot of sense. You probably have a lot of media – TV programmes, movies, music and home-made videos – in your PC, but watching and listening to it is not relaxing. You have to lean forward rather than lean back, as you would in your living room, with a TV set several feet away.
And Google’s move is not unexpected. Other big technology players like Microsoft and Apple have entered that arena, with Microsoft’s home media server products and the Apple TV hardware device, respectively.
Google’s solution is slightly different. Its Media Server uses an application called a Google Desktop gadget and Google’s desktop search application to find and send media files.
To make it work, you need a “Universal Plug and Play” (UPnP) device – basically a Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, or a “smart” TV like Hewlett-Packard’s MediaSmart HDTV. That aims Google’s move more at technology-savvy consumers. Once set up, a user can play on a TV the videos, music or photos on a connected PC.
It’s a smart idea. Since Google owns YouTube, the largest server of video online today, if more people watch via television, then Google will be able to sell more advertising against that content.
Cue panic at the TV stations, since this would surely cut out broadcasters from the game?
No, that’s a long way off – and Google doesn’t look like it’s about to buy up football games for transmission soon. However, YouTube is experimenting with long-form content and full-length movies. Google’s move is also about creating a whole eco-system for its products. Next year you should start to see “Google” mobile phones, running an Android operating system. That’s a Google product, so if it can cover the PC, mobile and TV, then Google will become even more powerful at serving targeted advertising to us.
