Google TV and Revue: say goodbye to your passive TV experience
![joel-evans.jpg](https://www.zdnet.com/a/img/resize/c715d3ed6c372201d9730794836139590a7f19e9/2014/07/22/5a83d976-1175-11e4-9732-00505685119a/joel-evans.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&frame=1&height=192&width=192)
So, yet another play for putting the web on my living room television. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the launch event but my colleague posted his thoughts, and my buddy Sal at Geek.com offered up some quick impressions:
"Google TV feels fluid and Android seems well-suited to the environment. The universal search was the most interesting feature, though most people don’t use their television for discovery, so this will take some retraining."
Sal's statement above hits on how I feel. There's something about watching TV that I like to do on a full screen. What I mean is, I don't really want to have a keyboard option there that could take away from my viewing experience, and therefore don't want "retraining". While I can appreciate the power that the keyboard and true integration with the web will afford me, I'm uneasy about linking the two on one screen. For example, today I watch TV and occasionally browse the web on either my iPhone or my iPad. If I had the option of browsing on screen, while watching a show, my TV experience would be altered in a negative way. In my view, TV viewing should be a passive experience. Introducing the ability for me to arc off in any direction I feel like on the same screen that I'm using to watch a show, seems to be an exhaustive experience.
On the other side, the ability to have access to all of these apps and even do HD video conferencing makes it a great living room appliance, so I can see the value it brings. I'm just not sure about the full integration into my TV experience.