Internet giant Google is out to expand its kingdom to the living room, launching an ambitious new service that lets people mesh television viewing with surfing the web.
Google TV, developed in partnership with technology titans Sony, Intel and Logitech, fuses the freedom of the internet with television programming.
Google executives vowed their TV platform will succeed where offerings such as Apple TV have foundered.
"Google TV is a new platform that we believe will change the future of television," said Google group product manager Rishi Chandra at conference in San Francisco.
Google TV, which is powered by Google's Android software and Chrome Web browser, can be accessed using upcoming web-enabled televisions from Sony or set-top boxes from Logitech that route web content to existing TV sets.
Sony and Logitech said the sets and boxes will be available in the United States in time for the year-end holiday shopping season and be rolled out internationally next year.
Initially, advertising served on Google TV will be the same as seen now by television viewers or web surfers but the internet firm said it is pondering ways to tailor advertising to the platform.
Google TV product manager Salahuddin Choudhary said in a blog post that Google TV will allow TV viewers to get "all the [TV] channels and shows you normally watch and all of the websites you browse all day".
Google is not the first technology company to attempt to unite the TV set and the internet. A number of electronics manufacturers are already offering web-enabled televisions or digital set-top boxes.
Yahoo! jumped into the internet television arena more than a year ago, teaming with set makers including Sony, Samsung, VIZIO, and LG to build-in software "widgets" that let viewers link directly to designated websites.
Yahoo! responded to the Google announcement with word that it is expanding to new devices to expand its reach.
Sony chief executive Howard Stringer described it as "a very big deal."
Chief among the questions hanging over the newfangled televisions is the price, which Google did not announce for the TV sets or set-top boxes.
"If this thing costs $US900 forget it. This is going to have to be right about where a phone is - $US250," analyst Ken Dulaney said.
Sony is among the electronics companies that have brought internet-capable televisions to market, but those sets have typically been limited to letting people access specific websites such as Yahoo! or YouTube.
