I used Chrome, didn't search for anything because the sales guy came up and started talking. But PIP in the corner while you're searching is pretty neat. I go to pick up the game on Tuesday morning so maybe I'll give the other apps a shot. I don't know what else was on the menu, Chrome just caught my eye first as being the browser so I did that. What else is on that menu? Just the Facebook, Twitter stuff? Music and other media options?
If Android affects TV the way it affects phones, I expect a cheap, low-end system to be released for something like $100 or less and I may settle for that.
But overall, with the initial experience with it, I changed my mind. I think Google TV is alright after all.
What they showed at the initial demonstration at Google I/O was a fully connected Android world across systems. So, the new web-based Market that you view on your PC has a dropdown menu that allows you to select different Android based devices and push things to that device. So you would push certain apps to your Google TV and others to your phone, if you have one of those cars that are running Android, you could push specific apps and content to your car.
Google Music being the same deal - wireless over the air push of your music library and newly purchased tracks to any number of Android devices you own.
For me, that's why it's the future. Imagine you're on your computer looking at YouTube because someone's emailed you a link to a great video. You could push that video straight to your Google TV and go sit down and watch it, if it's a long video that you don't want to stay at your computer to watch. This is how the new movie rentals thing that YouTube is doing is going to work, because obviously people don't want to watch movies on their computer.
When you add Android Market to it (which is coming early next year to Google TV I believe), and a decent amount of third party apps either designed for Google TV (clearly there'll be a specific GTV section in the Android Market) , as well as other apps not necessarily designed for Google TV but compatible with it - the skys the limit.
Apple simply can't do this with Apple TV. They don't have the synergy to connect everything simply using the Internet the way Google do.
Plus, you have to actually BUY Apple TV, whereas Google TV will be built in to TV's by all different manufacturers. Half my family already own Sony Bravia TV's....chances are when they next buy a new one, it'll be one that already comes with Google TV without them even knowing it. I think this time next year, or even 18 months from now, there'll be a lot of homes with Google TV. A good comparison would be the growth of Android itself from the release of the first device, the G1, and then the 2 years that have followed that. I think Google TV will follow a similar path.