Google has updated its YouTube app for Google TV, to offer more YouTube channels and make Google TV a more seamless experience for finding music and videos. The app has a new feature called “Discover,” for finding YouTube channels by categories, and also a new look and functionality for YouTube channels pages. The update to the app will be available in the Android Market under the Android App Store, and is mainly for Google TV peeps to get a better experience in a living room setting. "Whether you’re looking for hilarious comedy, delectable cooking content, or the latest news, you can find great channels for any of your interests," reads the announcement from the Google TV Blog. You better believe that the +1 button for Google+ will be all up in this experience ... everything Google does these days feeds right back to the Google+ social network.
Which is what this is a part of , the ongoing evolution of Google TV and YouTube, along with Google Music and Android to provide a Google ecosystem. Last week's news of a Google entertainment device provided a glimpse of the future ... Google wants to wirelessly stream media from around the house, providing an end to end solution for Google TV, Google Music, YouTube and Android phones as well as Android tablets from one convenient hub. This is all part of the Google TV vs. Apple TV fight that's starting to boil this year. A lively fight that will revamp the way we consume media in the home: streaming music and videos and anything online (which includes the Google+ social network along side Facebook and Twitter) in a way that makes use effortless and the TV set of last century look like the telegraph. MySpace TV will be part of this arena too ... even though most think that MySpace is fighting a challenged but losing battle to re-emerge. MySpace is probably on the up and up though.
Some we're not impressed, like Peter Kafka from AllThingsD. He wrote "Google TV’s “big announcement”? Not very large." He went on to add later "And it probably won’t change the world as we know it." CNET adds "Google has delivered a small update for its Google TV YouTube app." I think this misses the point though ... this isn't supposed to be an epic YouTube app product launch, just part of a steady string of updates to keep Google in the news, part of a new strategy at Google under new leader Larry Page. Google doesn't command the capability of the Apple rumor machine that hypes an iPad 3 release or an iPhone 5 release ... yet. But this year marks a change in direction, from Google+ to Google TV and Android. And PR, which we'll see play out through the year ...
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