Google TV Will Do What to Me? - Simon Applebaum - MediaBizBloggers

Thank Charlie Rose, one of TV's best interviewers, for the title of this column. At last week's debut TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York, he posed that question to John Doerr, partner (as in big player) at venture capital kingpin Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Silicon Valley.

"It's the best substantiation of merging the Internet with TV," he replied. "The Internet and TV are finally coming together. Google TV will do it."

Doerr may have a bias, given that his firm was an early investor in Google. But there's a substantial group of people who believe the company's interactive TV platform, introduced more than two weeks ago before some 5,000 application developers in San Francisco, may be the real deal.

That group begins with the luminous lineup of companies associated with Google's venture: Sony incorporating this platform into its Bravia TV set line, and perhaps assembling set-top boxes; Intel powering the process with its Atom chips; Adobe incorporating its Flash process into the platform; Logitech assembling set-top boxes and the remote control devices (likely with keyboards that flip out) necessary to manipulate Google TV; Best Buy, selling those Sony Bravia sets in its stores coast-to-coast, and most important for your attention, Dish Network, which will market Google TV to its 14 million-plus customers this fall, while Sony and Best Buy do likewise on their ends.

Why is Dish the most important link of this chain? Because according to all the Google TV descriptions out there, these set-tops connect with the digital cable or satellite boxes already out there. That's right, connect as in link up with each other. So consumers don't have to worry about a set-top pile in their future, and of itself, that's a consumer-friendly deal. If Dish can sell Google TV this way among their sub base, let the guessing game start over how soon Comcast, or DirecTV, or Time Warner Cable, or FiOS TV etc. joins in. You don't want to be the party at risk of being left behind if the multitudes embrace what Google will provide.

And that's the second important factor to watch here--what Google TV will provide. Both the set and set-top editions of this platform are open source. So open that anyone--a Web site, an Android application, an IPhone or IPad application, a Flash application or someone out of the blue, can create a knock-everyone's socks off interactive service that wows the masses in one shot, in one format, without middlemen. Google wants its pipe overflowing with eye or mind-appealing ITV apps, and the sooner, the better. You get the sense we and they don't want to be in for just animated Web pages, because if that's what we and they get, the crowd will not come.

Google TV will do what to us? Starting now, it's all up to the actions of its creators and the creations emerging from their imaginations. Strap in for a ringside seat to one of the most consequential situations of TV this year and decade ahead. Some observations from the passing parade known as TechCrunch Dispute last week: *****In few words, the conference was beautifully organized and pulled off. Outstanding and thought-provoking speakers and demonstrations of what's coming on the Web, and down the road, perhaps your TV. More surprise guests than any recent conference I've attended, from NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Justin Bieber's manager. Also great: many Web start-ups there owned or created by people of color, and a volunteer core gathered from colleges and universities nationwide, who got the chance to roam the show while not on task. What an education these students picked up in just three days. Looks like an annual conference keeper for the Big Apple. Would love to see them do more on TV's future the next go-round.

*****TechCrunch co-founder/editor Michael Arrington runs a great Web information resource and is one of the more provocative panel and one-on-one interviewers around. But he left an ugly taste in the mouths of many Disrupt attendees, yours truly included, when he launched a session with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz last Monday with this question, cleaned up for publication here: "How the (scatological expletive for intercourse) are you?" Insensitive, irrelevant and most of all, immature behavior to both Bartz and the audience. No matter the relationship between reporter/blogger and a company and/or its CEO, no way does an executive deserve to be ambushed in public like that. Bartz hung in there and stayed the course, although you could understand if after that question, she exited in a huff. An apology is in order.

*****Pay attention to Square, the latest venture from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, showcased at Disrupt last Wednesday. It's an IPhone/IPad application for accepting credit card payments in faster fashion, often in person-to-person surroundings. "This is hardware and software agnostic," Dorsey explained during the demonstration of this venture. Agonistic to the extent it's deployable through TV sets and set-top boxes, I'm guessing. Imagine using this with your remote control, especially one that flips into a keyboard. Give Dorsey a call, all you multichannel distributors out there. Could pay big-time to be hip to this square.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned! Simon Applebaum hosts/produces Tomorrow Will Be Televised, the Internet radio/podcast-distributed program on the TV scene. The program runs live Mondays/Fridays at 3 p.m. Eastern time; noon, Pacific time on BlogTalk Radio, with replays at www.blogtalkradio.com/simonapple04 and podcasts available for downloads via www.ITunes.com and other sites (details at www.sonibyte.com) . Have a question or reaction? Communicate it to simonapple04@yahoo.com

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