Google, Intel, Sony team up on Google TV platform

Google and Intel have teamed up with Sony to develop a platform called Google TV to bring the Internet to a new generation of televisions and set-top boxes, The New York Times said Wednesday.

The newspaper said that Google has built a prototype TV set-top box, but the Web-enabling technology may be incorporated directly into TVs or other devices like Blu-ray players.

It said the TV technology was based on Google's open-source Android mobile phone operating system and runs on Intel's Atom chips.

The Times said the Google TV software would present users with a new interface for TVs that lets them perform Internet functions like search while also pulling down Web programming like YouTube videos.

It would also allow Web applications like games or social networks to run on the devices, the newspaper said.

The Times said the project has been under way for several months but that none of the companies involved would comment publicly at this time.

"Google wants to be everywhere the Internet is so they can put ads there," the Times quoted a person "with knowledge of the project" as saying.

Web companies and electronics manufacturers have been exploring ways to bring the Internet to the television set for some time and a number of companies already offer set-top boxes and Web-enabled TVs.

The Times said Google, Intel and Sony have partnered with Logitech to develop a remote with a tiny keyboard to work with the system.

The Times said Google had begun testing the set-top box technology with Dish Network, a satellite TV provider.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Google was testing a new television programming search service with Dish Network.

The Journal said Google hopes to link the TV service with its TV ad-brokering business, Google TV Ads, allowing the Internet giant to target ads to individual households based on viewing and TV search data.

(c) 2010 AFP