Google TV has many of the same goals as Apple TV, namely to provide a simpler interface, a new way to discover great web and TV content. Google TV wants to provide a more TV-like YouTube experience, while Apple TV aims to do the same for iTunes and other content.

Google says it now has more than 150 apps which developers have specifically built for TV. Up to this point, Apple TV and Google TV have used an "add a box" approach. Google TV appliances

But Google has been aiming to make Google TV capabilities a native feature of the TV set, and seems to be getting some traction in that regard. Google TV getting traction

Google TV partners appear to include LG, Samsung, Sony and Vizio, all of whom will be featuring built in Google TV features on at least some TVs. Just how soon "many" makes and models will have embedded Google TV is not so clear. It might take several years. How long before Google TV is widely available?

But wider availability will be important insofar as consumers will become used to the idea that Internet-based video is available, and easy to view, on a standard TV. That won't, in and of itself, change the decisions content owners make about licensing their content in various different ways But the changes in customer expectations nonetheless will be important.

As millions of consumers become familiar with how to use Google TV and other TV-based systems that integrate Web-delivered programming, one more barrier to adoption will begin to fall. Content owners still will have to decide whether, when and how to make their shows available. But a potentially large audience will not be among the barriers to experimentation. 

So the issue is whether Google can succeed with its hoped-for seeding of Google TV on perhaps half of all TVs available for sale in the U.S. market in a few years. 

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