Google loves dropping an A-Bomb on the tech world, especially Apple it would increasingly appear, so today’s launch of Google TV has inevitably got the web buzzing (no pun intended).
Briefly, Google has built a service so that televisions can connect direct to the internet, using its Android and Chrome platforms.
Viewers will be able to, using the parlance from the Google I/O conference in the US this afternoon, have “a new experience for television that combines the TV that you already know with the freedom and power of the internet”.
Here’s a brief introduction:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diTpeYoqAhc
The announcement has implications across the board – effect on existing advertising revenues (Google has eaten into newspapers, now has its sights on TV!); impact on programming by existing channels; effect on DVD rental services (NetFlix, LoveFilm); and how Apple responds, of course.
For the travel industry, news that the web giant will be streaming in content from across the web onto TV screens should be a bit of a wake up call.
[Yes, you can currently access the web from a TV - this is about adoption and scale]
[And, yes, Google has also already posted web developer optimisation instructions]
Imagine the horror for a travel company when it realises that it has spent the last year or two handing out camcorders to staffers so they can quickly shoot a few minutes of footage of a local attraction or hotel pool for company’s website.
Indeed, those cheaply produced video clips will probably look, well, let’s say, pretty poor when streamed direct to the 40-inch TV screen of a potential customer’s living room.
Weakly produced TV footage can often easily be disguised on the web (it’s smaller and in embedded players, for a start) – but on high definition TV sets this may become a bit of a problem, at least in terms of the quality and overall look and feel of the output.
So the winners here, apart from Google, obviously, are those travel companies that have invested in decent quality video output, and those production companies that have sprung up in recent years (TripTelevision, TravelGuru.tv, TravelChannel, Trailstream, Voyage.tv et al) to produce high quality travel content.
The losers, unfortunately, may well be those that assumed (and hoped) that half-baked content would suffice for promotional video content.
This was inevitable – the signs were there years ago. We’ve been developing HD videos showcasing Canada travel product for some time !
@rob – i wonder how many are as prepared as you are though?
Everything I have shot for my website has been HD. Wobbly shots are still wobbly shots in HD. My excuse – cinema verite!
Yes, was foreseeable, and the more tech-savvy population has been doing this already for a while.
Everything I shoot also exists in HD… for the past 6 months anyway
Rgds,
Dieter Holle
Tourvest Inbound
Great article, have to agree with everything. Some of us knew this day was coming and prepared for it and others will play catchup for years. In addition to the other travel video outfits you posted in the article, InsiderPerks.com offers much of the same services to the travel industry and consumers.
We’ve shot all of our content in Broadcast Quality HD so we are ready to make a seamless transition to the big screen when a platform such as Google TV does jump into the mainstream.
More and more companies are seeing the value of video, the problem is they all too often can’t tell the difference between quality and quantity. There are reasons why some HD cameras cost $100 and some cost $30,000.
Thanks again for the article.. Keep up the great work.