YouTube’s ‘Leanback’ Wants to Friend Your Television Remote

• By Eliot Van Buskirk

YouTube Leanback already knows I love the YouTube video of Stereolab playing 'French Disko' on live TV, so it serves it up -- no searching or keyboard required (link below).

Google didn’t mention set-top boxes in Wednesday night’s announcement of YouTube Leanback, a beta version of the site designed to be viewed passively — as in couch potato — rather than actively — as in computer nerd. But clearly, YouTube has your TV set in mind with this high-definition version of the service, designed for use with any remote control.
The YouTube Leanback beta works with a regular QWERTY computer keyboard, but other than the search function, the interface uses only five buttons: the arrow keys and the enter key. You may not even find yourself wanting to search the service at all, because it links up with your YouTube subscriptions and videos your friends have recently shared on Facebook, in addition to a wide selection of categories, in which case those five buttons are all you need to use it.
The television remote, that quintessential component of the lean-back viewing experience, includes the same five buttons, of course. This YouTube Leanback Beta works with your computer now, but when it emerges from beta it could provide the backbone of a Google TV version for couch potatoes who want to keep their cable or satellite provider and use the same remote. YouTube and Dish Networks were reportedly testing an Android-based satellite television set-top box earlier this year.

Google TV Explained In 141 Seconds

Google published a video explaining its forthcoming Google TV product earlier today.
The video doesn't tell us much we didn't know already: Google TV, available both from a set-top box and built-in to select televisions from Sony, will provide new ways to search for and record existing television content, as well as allowing people to display online content on their televisions.
The product looks fine, as far as we can tell, but the video itself is pretty underwhelming. It is narrated in a PSA-like monotone, and is thin on detail. As ever with Google, it's difficult to tell whether the company thinks this is an important new business or just another side project.
At least some people think Google is on to something big here. If so, it needs to do a lot more to sell the idea:

The near-future of TV? It's not on the web

People check out new TVs at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January

(CNN) -- With all the free video on the web these days, or compelling new video devices such as Apple's iPad, it's tempting to get excited about the day you can fire your cable or satellite TV company and get all your entertainment from Internet streams.
But having spent a few years as an early adopter trying to do this -- a "Hulu household," I called it -- and recently caving in and resubscribing to cable, it's clear to me that the future of TV is simply more TV.
At least for the next several years, the way most people consume video in their homes isn't going to change much. There may be new gizmos and services to complement or extend your home video entertainment. But the vast majority of television is still going to be watched the old-fashioned way -- on a TV set, from a cable or satellite provider.