In an attempt to consolidate before the launch of Apple TV, Google on Monday said it will roll out a YouTube update for Google TV making it easier for the users to stream videos and browse across variety of channels on their TV sets.
Google, as a part of the update, will also roll a new feature called Discover, which will allow YouTube viewers to sort and browse channels by categories. Google also said that the upgrade will feature the new channel pages.
As the users click on a particular video, they will also be able to see and scroll through related videos and more videos from the same user just by pressing the up or down arrows on the remote control. The users will also be able to comment, add to playlist or rate the video, in the same manner as they do it on their computers, using the same set of keys on the remote control.
Google for long had been hinting on an update to Google TV. Google TV was co-launched in May 2010 by Intel, Sony and Logitech. But Logitech backed out after suffering a loss worth millions and suspended the production of Revue Google TV set-top box which was originally priced at $249. The price was later slashed to $99 to attract more consumers.
In October last year, Google updated its TV service to Android 3.2 ( Honeycomb) which is the last biggest update before Google upgrades its service to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and also introduced Android Marketplace
Google recently introduced new privacy policy, which has been widely criticised, and previously it updated YouTube website giving it a complete new look. According to YouTube's statistics, over 3 billion videos are viewed every day, making it the world's largest free-video sharing website. Of this, 70% of the traffic comes from outside the US.
