Andres Ferrate - Building Web Apps for Google TV

When designing Google TV, we wanted to address some of the pain points we had experienced as television viewers. We all had our own favorite TV shows; we enjoyed friends coming over to watch the Super Bowl; we loved watching movies on a large screen in the comfort of our homes. Yet, we knew that many of the TV shows and movies produced never find their way through traditional distribution channels to our living rooms. We wanted to bring the infinite shelf space provided by the Internet to television, carrying with it all of the TV shows and movies ever produced. We also wanted to make it dead simple to find something great to watch, whether from a TV channel or Internet source. Last but not least, we wanted the big screen in our living rooms to be more than a TV. We wanted it to be a space where we could share photos, music, and more with our family and friends, sitting next to each other on a couch.

These were ambitious goals that we felt we could not reach on our own. We set ourselves on a course to build a platform to empower developers like you to innovate and propel television into the second decade of the 21st century. This is how Google TV was born. Do you remember the ancient days when all you could do with a phone was place and answer calls and send short messages? These times seem long gone even though the revolution of smart phones started less than three years ago. We are inviting you to become the foot soldiers, admirals, and visionaries of the smart TV revolution. Furthermore, there are over four billion and growing television viewers. For many of them, television is their only window into the world. We are counting on you to give all of them more programs to watch on TV, better ways to find what to watch on TV, and more things to do with their TVs.

Perhaps one day Bruce Springsteen will have to update his famous line: Billions of web pages and nothing to watch. Somehow we believe you will make sure that never happens.