Is your Website ready for Google TV?

Google just announced that Google TV is real, and gave a public demo, via YouTube (above).  It's been the talk of the digerati for a few months now, but at last it's confirmed.  Google also said that by summer of 2011, Google TV will be open-sourced.  That's a big deal.

For one thing, it could pull the life-support plug on AppleTV, which was already reeling from Netflix's partner offerings, like the Roku box, and Amazon's similar service.  For another, it pretty much squashes any hope Microsoft had of jumping in with a new dedicated hardware offering and/or service; fortunately, the X-Box 360 is a sanctioned Netflix-streaming device, but that's all MS has got, really.

I remember a presentation by MIT prof Philip Greenspun in 2001 here in Austin.  He talked about how these awesome new 3G phones were the rage in Japan.  People could websurf on them at ridiculous speeds, and the technology was coming here soon.  Corporations needed to prepare their sites by offering a WAP (wireless access protocol), or 'mobile' version.  Philip was a little ahead of his time.

Mobile browsing did eventually catch on here in America, much later than Greenspun predicted.  Now Google has given the same heads-up:  is your Website GTV-ready?  I don't even know what that entails, but you can be damn sure I'm  gonna find out.  Soon.