October 04, 2010, 6:26 PM — You may have heard that Twitter announced a Google TV app. That means you'll be able to tell the Twitterverse that you're watching Google TV -- from Google TV. Nobody will care. But if you're a Twitter fan, it might be fun to tweet about TV shows using the TV rather than a second device.
The app goes beyond the mere sending of tweets. You can also read tweets and even open links to look at websites, photos and videos. Best of all, Twitter works in a picture-in-a-picture mode -- the TV show plays in a small window as Twitter takes over the screen and presumably vice versa.
Twitter usage always spikes during big "TV events" like the Oscars or Super Bowl. Hundreds of thousands of people watch TV and tweet comments about the shows. Noticing this, the TV networks have begun heavily promoting Twitter interactivity. For example, at the recent Emmy's, viewers' tweets were actually read by host Jimmy Fallon between awards.
Google TV simply improves the experience of doing what people are already doing. But by improving "Twee Vee" (or Twittering during TV) and putting it front and center, they're also promoting it. And being promoted by it.
In the future, I think it's likely that "event" shows will increasingly promote Twitter. However, now that Twitter is a Google TV app, hosts or announcers for such programming will explicitly invite people to download the app. This could be especially powerful for mainstream viewer voting type shows like “dancing with the stars” where the use of Twitter may actually determine the outcome.
In other words Google TV could end up being the best thing that ever happened to Twitter. It could introduce, reintroduce, or recruit people who had already rejected Twitter to become active new users. And Twitter could be Google TV's "killer app."
It's also easy to imagine the integration of twitter into other apps. Let's say, for example, that CNN or HBO wanted interactivity to go along with their programming. One brilliant approach would be to integrate Twitter into their Google TV apps. App users would broadcast their comments not only to other app users, but also the whole Twitter community, which would constantly advertise the app to the twitter using public.
The opportunities for promotion, cross promotion, and platform cross-pollination are enormous. And this one Twitter example is why Google TV has such an incredible advantage over Apple TV, at least so far.
What about you? Are you interested in Google TV? If so, are you interested in using twitter on Google TV?
