Google's Android TV Aims to Rule Your Living Room as a Pandora for Video

Today, Google officially announced Android TV, the tech giant’s latest attempt to win the screen in your living room—that coveted space ruled for decades by cable companies. Google has already made three to five plays for the big screen (depending on how you count it) since 2010, but the tech giant seems undeterred by its past misfires.

Unlike its competitors, Android TV is not a box set, more an “entertainment interface” and software system built into TVs that give you access to Hulu, Netflix, Pandora and Google’s own YouTube. The interface also runs on existing hardware, like Apple TV and Roku. Consumers would be able to control Android TV screen browsing through mobile devices, like tablets and Android smartwatches, instead of plain old regular TV remotes.

Android TV will have a recommendation engine built in that suggests new content based on what you already watched (think Pandora for TV) but perhaps the biggest selling point of Android TV is that you can play any of the games on your mobile devices on the big screen. This angle, which Google has over its competitors, could explain why the Android TV menu looks a lot like the menu on Xbox Live, Microsoft’s popular gaming console service that also gives you access to services like Hulu and Netflix.

As a product, Android TV is not particularly ground-breaking; nor will it revolutionize the way we do TV—it is largely a combination of services already available. Perhaps this will be the key to its success—it’s a combination of products consumers already use, and like using, except all under the Google umbrella on one screen you access from your sofa. Google products like Search and Hangouts will be available on Android TV as well.

Back in April, the Verge obtained an exclusive on the Android TV, and concerning the matter of the recommendation engine the publication wrote "access to content should be simple and magical," and finding new content “should never take more three clicks or gestures.”

Not much further information is available on how exactly the recommendation service of Android TV will work, and looking at Google’s own YouTube recommendation engine offers few indicators. For a site that has revolutionized the entire entertainment industry and has companies like Time Warner and Disney knocking, YouTube’s content recommendation system leaves much to be desired, as does its search.

Finding new content is still a problem outside services tried to tackle, and for months rogue users even hijacked YouTube’s recommendation and related videos system for profit. The 2012 revamp of the system helped somewhat, but not by much. YouTube’s general neglect is quite odd considering the success of Google asa  search engine first and foremost; you’d think the tech giant would start there, with its existing entertainment platform, in its quest to rule the living room.