A good chunk of Google TV runs inside a browser. Besides the main menu, everything else like the search, web apps, and a lot more are simply webpages and search queues. This means that you can essentially try out the service — or integrate some of it into your HTPC — right now. This hit me shortly after I posted our full review and I managed to grab the URLs of two of Google TV’s main products: TV Search & Spotlight.
Google TV Search is the platform’s secret sauce and would be crazy useful outside of the product, but alas, those URLs seem to self destruct after a few quick minutes. Still, most people are smarter than I, so I pasted the link below anyway, with the hope someone can deconstruction them and out something useful. Just don’t bother navigating to it, it won’t show the awesome search tool.
Spotlight isn’t all that exciting in Google TV or in your browser. It’s just nice and large shortcuts to various video content around the Internet. But since the sites it links to work just okay in Google Chrome’s gimped browser, the sites should play like the SF Giants in a proper browser. HTPC users, this one is for you.
Google TV search is without question the best thing about Google TV. It polls the Internet along with your STB programing guide and even local network drives for searched content and then presents the info in a clever grid layout. The rest of the platform is nonsense; all you really need is Google TV Search built directly into a TV or existing HTPC.
Go ahead and try these Google TV Search URLs, but they will probably display an error. The links only seem to stay active for a few quick minutes and I didn’t think to grab a screenshot. The first first link should take you to a page similar to the pic directly above, but for Top Gear instead of CSI. The next link is then for the selected series, which then displays all the seasons and episodes for Top Gear. The Internet would be forever grateful if someone can make these links useful, but from what I can see it filters the browser type to prevent this sort of thing.
http://www.google.com/tv/a/landingPage?q=top%20gear&salt=21477813&appid=com.google.tv.chrome&l=MI21437.X&chans=2n12y1n5y1n7y1n10y1n24y1n6y2n1y15n2y4n2y2n4y1n22y2n8y1n10y1n2y7n2y2n4y1n3y5n2y1n38y1n1y3n15y1n2y1n26y22n1y1n2y1n3y1n1y37n1y30n2y9n6y3n2y1n2y1n3y1n2y1n1y2n46y154n12y2n4y1n1y1n1y1n2y1n8y1n2y1n1y1n1y1n2y1n3y1n1y1n5y8n3y24n4y19n1y6n4y1n2y1n1y2n9y1n3y3n1y136n4y1n2y7n2y58n4y&ss=true&tz=America/New_York&v=4&nohd=false&dmdl=Revue&dbid=KA11-20101015.201139.user-b39389>vt=1288668815756>vh=raptP5v8EUa9yLPZ%2B095HFh0TXA%3D
http://www.google.com/tv/a/series?sr=00335172&appid=com.google.tv.chrome&l=MI21437.X&chans=2n12y1n5y1n7y1n10y1n24y1n6y2n1y15n2y4n2y2n4y1n22y2n8y1n10y1n2y7n2y2n4y1n3y5n2y1n38y1n1y3n15y1n2y1n26y22n1y1n2y1n3y1n1y37n1y30n2y9n6y3n2y1n2y1n3y1n2y1n1y2n46y154n12y2n4y1n1y1n1y1n2y1n8y1n2y1n1y1n1y1n2y1n3y1n1y1n5y8n3y24n4y19n1y6n4y1n2y1n1y2n9y1n3y3n1y136n4y1n2y7n2y58n4y&ss=true&tz=America/New_York&v=4&nohd=false&dmdl=Revue&dbid=KA11-20101015.201139.user-b39389>vt=1288669260488>vh=N6EIFvjvTGN02jIvEDsKls8SIbE%3D
Google makes fantastic products and Google TV could end up in that category alongside Gmail, Maps, and Android. But if the platform fails, there’s a good chance that at least the search portion would live on. That’s good enough for me.