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Thursday, October 21, 2010
Just as mobile phones make your site
accessible to people on the go,
Google TV
makes your site easily viewable to people lounging on their couch. Google TV is a platform that
combines your current TV programming with the web and, before long, more apps. It's the web you
love, with the TV you love, all available on the sofa made for you. Woohoo!
Because Google TV has a fully functioning web browser built in, users can easily visit your site
from their TV. Current sites should already work, but you may want to provide your users with an
enhanced TV experience—what's called the "10-foot UI" (user interface). They'll be several
feet away from the screen, not several inches away, and rather than a mouse on their desktop,
they'll have a remote with a keyboard and a pointing device.
For example, here's YouTube for desktop users versus what we're calling
"YouTube Leanback"
—our site optimized for large screens:
It means that, for the user sitting on their couch, your site on their TV is an even more
enjoyable experience:
Text is large enough to be viewable from the sofa-to-TV distance.
Site navigation can be performed through button arrows on the remote (a
D-pad),
rather than mouse/touchpad usage
Selectable elements provide a visual queue when selected (when you're 10 feet away, it needs to
be really, really obvious what selections are highlighted)
How can webmasters gain a general idea of their site's appearance on TV?
First, remember that appearance alone doesn't incorporate whether your site can be easily
navigated by TV users (that is, users with a remote rather than a mouse). With that said, here's
a quick workaround to give you a ballpark idea of how your site looks on TV. (For more in-depth
info, please see the
"Design considerations"
in our optimization guide.)
On a large monitor, make your window size 1920 x 1080.
In a browser, visit your site at full screen.
Zoom the browser to 1.5x the normal size. This is performed in different ways with different
keyboards. For example, in Chrome if you press ctrl + (press ctrl and
+ at the same time) twice, that'll zoom the browser to nearly 1.5x the initial
size.
Move back 3 x (the distance between you and the monitor).
Check out your site!
And don't forget, if you want to see your site with the real thing, Google TV enabled devices are
now available in stores.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle TV makes websites accessible on television screens, presenting a "10-foot UI" experience for users.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsites should be optimized for TV by ensuring large, readable text, D-pad navigation, and clear visual cues for selected elements.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmasters can preview their site's TV appearance by simulating a large screen, zoomed-in view from a distance.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle provides detailed developer resources and guidelines for optimizing websites for Google TV.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Google TV allows users to view websites on their TVs. Websites should be optimized for a \"10-foot UI,\" meaning large text and remote-friendly navigation using a D-pad. Optimized sites offer visual cues for selected elements. Webmasters can simulate the TV experience by setting their browser to 1920x1080, zooming to 1.5x, and moving back three times their usual monitor distance. Resources about TV optimization guidelines and techniques are available.\n"],null,["# Optimizing sites for TV\n\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore).\n\nThursday, October 21, 2010\n\n\nJust as mobile phones make your site\n[accessible to people on the go](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing),\n[Google TV](https://www.google.com/tv/)\nmakes your site easily viewable to people lounging on their couch. Google TV is a platform that\ncombines your current TV programming with the web and, before long, more apps. It's the web you\nlove, with the TV you love, all available on the sofa made for you. Woohoo!\n\n\nBecause Google TV has a fully functioning web browser built in, users can easily visit your site\nfrom their TV. Current sites should already work, but you may want to provide your users with an\nenhanced TV experience---what's called the \"10-foot UI\" (user interface). They'll be several\nfeet away from the screen, not several inches away, and rather than a mouse on their desktop,\nthey'll have a remote with a keyboard and a pointing device.\n\n\nFor example, here's YouTube for desktop users versus what we're calling\n\"[YouTube Leanback](https://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/10/youtube-leanback-officially-launches-on)\"\n---our site optimized for large screens:\n\n\nSee our\n[Spotlight Gallery](https://www.google.com/tv/spotlight-gallery)\nfor more examples of TV-optimized sites.\n\nWhat does \"optimized for TV\" mean?\n----------------------------------\n\n\nIt means that, for the user sitting on their couch, your site on their TV is an even more\nenjoyable experience:\n\n- Text is large enough to be viewable from the sofa-to-TV distance.\n- Site navigation can be performed through button arrows on the remote (a [D-pad](https://code.google.com/tv/web/docs/implement_for_tv.html#keyboard)), rather than mouse/touchpad usage\n- Selectable elements provide a visual queue when selected (when you're 10 feet away, it needs to be really, really obvious what selections are highlighted)\n- [and even more guidelines about optimizing you pages for TV...](https://code.google.com/tv/web/)\n\nHow can webmasters gain a general idea of their site's appearance on TV?\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nFirst, remember that appearance alone doesn't incorporate whether your site can be easily\nnavigated by TV users (that is, users with a remote rather than a mouse). With that said, here's\na quick workaround to give you a ballpark idea of how your site looks on TV. (For more in-depth\ninfo, please see the\n\"[Design considerations](https://code.google.com/tv/web/docs/design_for_tv.html#design)\"\nin our optimization guide.)\n\n1. On a large monitor, make your window size 1920 x 1080.\n2. In a browser, visit your site at full screen.\n3. Zoom the browser to 1.5x the normal size. This is performed in different ways with different keyboards. For example, in Chrome if you press `ctrl +` (press `ctrl` and `+` at the same time) twice, that'll zoom the browser to nearly 1.5x the initial size.\n4. Move back 3 x (the distance between you and the monitor).\n5. Check out your site!\n\n\nAnd don't forget, if you want to see your site with the real thing, Google TV enabled devices are\n[now available in stores](https://googletv.blogspot.com/2010/10/announcing-sony-internet-tv-and-sony).\n\nHow can you learn more?\n-----------------------\n\n\nOur team just published a\n[developer site with TV optimization techniques](https://code.google.com/tv/web/).\n\n\nWritten by\n[Maile Ohye](/search/blog/authors/maile-ohye),\nDeveloper Programs Tech Lead"]]
