An online video experience for your TV

May 21, 2010 09:55 GMT  ·  By

There were plenty to take in during the Google TV launch at the Google I/O 2010 conference, but YouTube’s part in all of this looks interesting. YouTube’s Director of Product Management, Hunter Walk, unveiled YouTube Leanback, a new interface for the popular video site, designed specifically for the big-screen TV. This isn’t the first time YouTube shows us something like this, but Leanback looks a lot more polished than any previous effort.

The idea is simple, the TV, even with the Google TV interface and the dedicated remote/keyboard, isn’t so great for browsing the web as we know it. What’s more, with video, you have further expectations. Most people are fine watching a video on a small laptop screen in an even smaller box on YouTube. The nature of the video consumption on a computer and of the videos themselves, short and mostly of lower quality, makes it that most people won’t even go to full screen.

That won’t fly on the TV, though. YouTube Leanback is quite different from what you’re used to on the site. The videos start to play automatically, in full screen, but you can browse for other videos at the same time. The best part, though, is that you don’t have to, YouTube will continue to play videos back-to-back, based on what it thinks you like.

This “You Channel” is created based on your past preferences, interests and what your friends like and share. This way, the name gets its credit, you can just lean back and watch YouTube videos without any intervention. You can skip any of the videos you don’t like, of course.

But there’s more to Leanback, from the categories menu at the bottom, you can select content based on other criteria. You can view the videos from the people you’ve subscribed to, or choose from the content categories YouTube already provides.

Another source that YouTube hopes will become very popular, and that is especially of interest in the TV context, is rentals. YouTube has started offering video rentals on the site and, despite the fact that results so far haven’t been great, the YouTube Store still has a lot of promise. And being able to access it from your TV makes it a lot more interesting. A beta of YouTube Leanback is expected soon, though it’s unclear if it will be accessible from devices other than Google TV.

Google I/O 2010

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Chrome Web Store

 - WebM, Google’s Open Video Format for HTML5  - WebM - A Technical Overview and Possible Legal Issues  - 

Google Wave Is Now Open to Everyone

 - Google Wave for Apps and New APIs  - Google Storage for Developers  - Google Buzz API  - Google App Engine for Business and VMWare Partnership  - Android 2.2 Froyo Is Lightning Fast  - Google TV Set to Conquer the Living Room   - Music May be Coming to the Android Marketplace   - Presenting the New Fonts API