Google’s Confusing-as-Hell New ‘TV’ Service Has a Remote, at Least
It’s been a surprisingly long journey to this point
In 2010, Google announced Google TV, an online streaming service that promised to change the way we interact with our TVs. Instead of using a clunky old remote control, users would be able to search for shows with a keyboard or whatever this “10,000-button nightmare” was. They didn’t catch on. When Google launched the Chromecast hardware three years later, it skipped the remote entirely, and users had to control the device through their phones.
But at a hardware launch event on Wednesday, Google evidently decided to throw in the towel on its control gimmicks, announcing a new model of the Chromecast that finally includes a regular, basic remote control.
What took so long?
Despite its long history being a staple of TV usage, the remote control still had some problems in 2010 that were worth addressing. Searching for a show by tediously using a directional pad to spell its name out letter by letter is annoying. Old IR remotes only worked when pointed directly at the TV. And it would be nice to scroll through a TV guide channel as smoothly as you can through Facebook.
Google initially tried to solve these problems with its early attempts at a TV…
