Microsoft to shutter MSN TV, 16 years after it launched as WebTV
Microsoft is shuttering MSN TV, the 16-year-old service that allowed users to access the internet through their TVs, as of September 30.
Today in Social
This week has been all location all the time, so, for variety’s sake, let’s stay home on Friday. This GigaOM piece has some screenshots and analysis of the Google TV interface. The video demo looks way too much like WebTV. That is, more like bringing a lousy Internet experience to a bigger screen than delivering a better TV experience. Although Google TV wisely integrates search and a Netflix-like queue, it doesn’t seem to feature recommendations, be they generated by editor, collaborative filtering, or connections to your real friends. That’s a big hole. I suspect “social navigation” will be a differentiator in the battle for the home-screen interface.