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According to a report by the New York Times, Google has teamed up with Sony, Intel and Logitech to develop a set-top box which will basically be a TV with a built in computer that uses Intel chips and runs Google’s Android OS. The platform aims to “seamlessly integrate web content onto TVs, bringing services like Twitter and sites like YouTube, in addition to games, web apps, and, of course, Google’s search, to the big screen”. It seems that dominating the computer world wasn’t all they had in mind and Google TV is a project that has been underway for several months now.

Highlights

The GTV software will be open source so device and TV makers will have broad access to it. Google is working with Logitech to build a keyboard-equipped remote control as well as speakers for the platform. Moreover, the technology may also be built directly into Blu-ray players and TVs from Sony. Google TV will also feature a version of Chrome browser developed specifically for the device, for web surfing.

Regular television will of course be available, but the software will offer users a new interface that lets them perform Internet functions such as streaming from Hulu, YouTube and other web-video sources, as well as games and apps for social networking.

This is obviously not the first project of its kind with companies like Microsoft, Apple and Yahoo who have also been working on technology for connected televisions. So far though the efforts have been met with moderate success, Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs even claiming that this field is “more of a hobby”.

For the past three years, Google has already been breaking into television advertising through a program called Google TV ADS and thousands of advertisers are signed up.

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Price

Though there is no official price tag for the GTV set-top box, some are estimating it to be in the $150 range, depending of course on features and specs. No official release dates have been announced yet either.