The Revolution is Coming

Google is going to introduce its new technology to create internet-capable television this week at the Google Developer Conference in San Francisco. Unless they botch it totally, this will be the biggest success that Google has ever undertaken. Even if they fail they will succeed, because the convergence of the internet and television has been inevitable since the World Wide Web got under way in the early 90s. Almost every internet observer in the world has predicted this to happen. The wonder is that it has taken so long.

But then a number of ducks had to be lined up. One was the availability of broadband to a critical mass of households. This is pretty much there. Another has been the availability of TVs that can handle the high density signals - we're there. Another has been the availability of television shows on the internet. Here there is work to do. Much television is now available on the internet, and some people have cancelled their cable subscriptions to watch their TV exclusively on their computers. But generally, so far, this has been a preserve of the more technically minded, since it takes some surfing dedication to find the shows, and many of them are archived rather than live.

But all this can change in a heartbeat if the public twigs to the tremendous flexibility and range of internet based TV.

Lets face it,. Television has played a huge role in shaping our culture. If we re-shape television, it will reshape out culture. Maybe make it more international, more inclusive. More understanding of other cultures. Maybe even lead to more convergence of global cultures.

We are heading into interesting times.

Oh, and if Google somehow drops the ball, someone else will pick it up. For a good overview article see the Times. For more on the Developer Conference, see its site.