Anne-Marie Roussel, a Sharp partnership and venture executive, has put together a great summary of the various different startups and businesses within the Social TV ecosystem, and for anybody interested in the intersection between social and TV should take a look at her work.
Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews. 
Google has acquired SageTV for an undisclosed amount. The tech giant has plans to take SageTV’s media management software and technology to next level, according Google’s spokeswoman. SageTV is an Inglewood-based company that provide DVR technology and streaming-video software for systems running Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac OS X.
What do you get when you combine personalized, curated video entertainment service Redux with Google TV? Redux founder and CEO David McIntosh answered that question with a post on the Google TV Blog.
According to Eric Berger of Sony Pictures Television, viewers spend about 50 minutes per visit to Crackle on connected TVs. Crackle can be found in the Channel Store on Roku, on the PlayStation 3 Internet Browser home screen and on all BRAVIA Internet Video devices. Crackle is partnered with Google TV and can be accessed via the Spotlight section.
Google TV announced that its Google TV Remote app is now available for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and iPods running iOs 3 or higher, joining the Android app, which debuted in December.
In addition to traditional remote-control functions such as changing channels or DVR access, users can search for their favorite shows via voice search.
Google TV added that the app currently does not support sharing Web pages from the Apple devices to TV screens.
Google TV released version 1.3 over this past weekend as an over-the-air update for its users.
Improvements include: support for more WMA audio files; better integration of Netflix and CNBC Real Time; improved transition between songs in Pandora; support for Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity on Sony devices; and support for more Blu-ray discs.
The commercial for Logitech Revue with Google TV in which an obsessed Kevin Bacon fan is played by none other than Bacon himself is now a documentary on YouTube, and the character Bacon portrays, Ivan Cobenk, “editor-in-chief of Bacon Quarterly,” posted about it on the YouTube Blog:
Hey, everyone, this is Ivan Cobenk — No. 1 Kevin Bacon fan in the world, and founder and solo member of The Other Bacon Brothers, Akron’s leading Bacon Brothers cover band. I’m also fairly well known amongst YouTubers because of the documentary that was made about me recently. You can even see how I use YouTube to find my favorite Kevin clips (or Bacon Bits, as I like to call them). The guys at Logitech used a few clips from the film to advertise their new Revue gizmo with Google TV. Nearly 2 million people have already watched it on YouTube. That’s almost 10 times the population of Akron, by gosh!
Google will soon be launching Google TV Market, a market place for apps targeting Google TV, according to Ashish Arora, Vice President and General Manager at Logitech. In this present role at Logitech, Arora’s job is to oversee Google’s TV products for Logitech and ensure that Logitech products are compatible with Google’s offerings.
YouTube news manager Olivia Ma went to bat for corporate sibling Google TV with a post on the Google TV Blo (detailing the various news options available via the service. She wrote:
Television is still the main source for the daily news in the home, according to Pew research. Until lately, print and Web news content have been absent from the big screen. We’ve been working with developers to enhance your TV news experience, optimizing both traditional and innovative news sources for Google TV
The New York Times offers daily TimesCast video-news updates alongside video blogs and featurettes.
USA Today has improved reading for the big screen: You can browse through the day in photos, stay up to date on sports news, and track the world of business.
The CNBC News App lets you watch the latest Web videos in business news. Follow the markets as they happen and track your personal, customized stock portfolio.
The Huffington Post brings together the best of traditional news, the blogosphere, and opinion reporting in its sleek News Glide Web app.
The Onion covers “the important stories lesser outlets fail to report” through its comedic style.
Samsung Electronics‘ cache of products unveiled at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show included a new Blu-ray player with a companion box that enables Google TV.
Users can surf the Web on their TV screens, including access to social networks, email, and fantasy sports, and Samsung said its special remote control will include a full QWERTY keypad and voice search supported through an internal microphone.
