Google to launch free TV service

While the Internet and television used to be two different entertainment entities, the gap between them has lessened in recent years — and now, with the announcement that Google will bring the web to the small screen, it’s virtually closed.


Google CEO Eric Schmidt says the service, which will launch in the U.S. this fall and worldwide next year, will allow full Internet browsing via the television, according to Reuters. The best part? The service will be free.

The search engine company plans to work with a variety of programme makers and electronics manufacturers to bring this to consumers, “but it is very unlikely that we will get into actual content production,” Schmidt says.

Sony has already come on-board the project, agreeing to have Google TV on its sets, and Samsung is considering this option as well.

This news comes less than a week after Apple revealed its latest Apple TV product.

In other Google updates, Schmidt says they will announce partnerships later this year with makers of tablet computers that will use Google’s Chrome operating system, an alternative to Microsoft Windows, due out soon.

And while the CEO declined to comment on Google’s plans for a social network of its own, the company is apparently in talks with music labels to create a music download store and digital song locker.