If and when Google pulls together its Android operating system, AdSense sales, search engine and other algorithmic services into an integrated, embedded Google TV offering, television will never be the same.
So declares Diane Mermigas, writing for MediaPost. And there's more:
If Google becomes an interactive infrastructure with its brand of PC and smartphone functionality for television, then all bets are off for doing things the casually conventional way. With Sony and Intel as initial partners, a more encompassing generation of Google TV is expected to roll out this year, although there has been no formal announcement.
The eventual adoption of Google's open Android and advertising systems and search engine across digital TV everywhere could be swift; Google already is the online standard. Google has the clout to compete with the proprietary program navigation and ad pricing and placement of various rivals: Comcast and other cable operators, Verizon and other telecom companies, and Apple and other electronics manufacturers.
Google's basket of interactive services embedded or uploaded to TV -- like other digital devices -- could be advantageous to advertisers seeking more efficient connections to target consumers with all the analytics and support it now provides. Viewers could more broadly search, find and integrate what they want on the Web and on TV -- from movies and TV programs to Twitter, Skype, Facebook and e-shopping.
That's a great action plan for Google. Now we'll have to see how the rest of the cable world, from the content providers to the cable carriers, reacts to the challenges Mermigas lays out.
