Google is releasing an update to YouTube for Google TV over the next few days, aiming to make it easier to navigate the video service on its connected sets.
On Saturday, the company promised that it would release “big announcements” about Google TV on Monday. Oddly enough, the company posted the notice on its Facebook page before publishing the post about YouTube on its blog. The new service will also have a big focus on channels, making it easier for users to navigate between related videos and find content from the same account. Users will also be able to rate videos, add comments or add a video to their playlists. YouTube has been growing like a weed for the past few years, quietly maturing beyondbeing the Internet’s repository of cute cat videos. According to the latest statistics from Google, an hour of video is being uploaded to the site every second, and the site loggedone trillion page views in 2011. With channels, the company is getting more ambitious with content creation, cultivating talent that produces content that is ideal for the Web. In his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, YouTube executive Robert Kyncl predicted that, soon, 90 percent of Web traffic will be video.
The update also points to Google’s decision to double-down on Google TV, even though the product hasn’t been a great success. Google has been adding more hardware partners to its lineup, including Samsung and LG, promising new products will be pushed out to the market in the coming months.
Washingtonpost.com
