Coming Soon: Search Your TV With Google And Android?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and Dish Network are working together on a set-top box that will contain Google software, allowing users to search their local listings in addition to the web, directly from their television. Sounds like a neat idea… but imagine if you throw Android into the mix.
Press your dish network app, connect to your local TV and have your pre-selected favorite stations and recording history sitting right in front of you. Watching American Idol? Vote for your favorite contestants right from your phone. Know that your favorite team is playing in a big game but can’t find the channel? Search their name and in ADDITION to getting their game, pull up stats, recent game highlights, scores, schedules, rankings, chat rooms and more – all based on your Google search.
The entire last paragraph is pure speculation, but while a few years ago this was just a “concept” that seemed far away, today it is definitely a potential reality. Dish Network isn’t exactly the largest service provider of the bunch, so I imagine they’re attempting to use Google just as T-Mobile did: to improve and differentiate their service from competitors by taking an untraditional risk. In my mind it isn’t a risk but a calculated benefit at the cost of giving up a certain amount of control.
There are already a lot of Apps out there which help to integrate your Android phone and TV… and as time goes on that will be more and more the case.