Noting this piece which positions Tivo as the Google of TV. More to say on it, but from it:
Announced this week at CES 2009, the new TV search works similarly to the search bar in the Firefox address browser. You type in the first few letters of a show in the ‘discovery bar’ and relevant recommendations of shows on TV satellite and broadband networks come up. At the same time, you get a nice looking new column arrangement of information about a show, including episode description, rating, and relevant art.
The new appearance, according to TiVo reps, was created to fit to the longer length of HDTV’s. The old swivel search had no visuals and didn’t provide immediate information that could help a user choose efficiently. Still, this is a feature that is most helpful during passive browsing – if you’re the type that already knows what you want, the new search will look much nicer but it won’t make a huge difference.
Recall I’ve earlier noted that search on TV is really broken, and is a real opportunity. And don’t think Google doesn’t want to be the Google of TV. I think the company presumes it will be. For any number of reasons, including the “webification” of television in general. Once the web hits TV, Google comes along, though it will have to keep doing distro deals with the likes of Comcast, which are not going so well (Yahoo took Google’s biz here).
So Google acquires TiVo and cinches the niche of being the Google of TV! Or am I missing something?
Google = free. Tivo = not exactly.
Google = great market penetration/share of eyeballs. Tivo = not exactly.
It’s great that Tivo wants to be the ‘google of search’ and all, but hopefully they’ve got some smart folks focusing on more important things than just the discovery bar.