Webmaster Central Blog
Official news on crawling and indexing sites for the Google index
Optimizing sites for TV
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Webmaster Level: All
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:
YouTube desktop version on the left, YouTube Leanback on the right
See our
Spotlight Gallery
for more examples of TV-optimized sites.
What does "optimized for TV" mean?
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)
and more...
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 (i.e. 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
.
How can you learn more?
Our team just published a developer site, with TV optimization techniques, at
code.google.com/tv/web/
.
Written by
Maile Ohye
, Developer Programs Tech Lead
Hey!
Check here if your site is mobile-friendly.
Labels
accessibility
10
advanced
195
AMP
13
Android
2
API
7
apps
7
autocomplete
2
beginner
173
CAPTCHA
1
Chrome
2
cms
1
crawling and indexing
158
encryption
3
events
51
feedback and communication
83
forums
5
general tips
90
geotargeting
1
Google Assistant
3
Google I/O
3
Google Images
3
Google News
2
hacked sites
12
hangout
2
hreflang
3
https
5
images
12
intermediate
205
interstitials
1
javascript
8
job search
2
localization
21
malware
6
mobile
63
mobile-friendly
14
nohacked
1
performance
17
product expert
1
product experts
2
products and services
63
questions
3
ranking
1
recipes
1
rendering
2
Responsive Web Design
3
rich cards
7
rich results
10
search console
35
search for beginners
1
search queries
7
search results
140
security
12
seo
3
sitemaps
46
speed
6
structured data
33
summit
1
TLDs
1
url removals
1
UX
3
verification
8
video
6
webmaster community
24
webmaster forum
1
webmaster guidelines
57
webmaster tools
177
webmasters
3
youtube channel
6
Archive
2020
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
June
May
Apr
Mar
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
July
June
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Feed
Follow @googlewmc
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Subscribe via email
Enter your email address:
Delivered by
FeedBurner
