Google TV is a very complicated product. It is advertised in essence as the internet on your television. When Google TV was first announced, I have to say I was amazed. I thought it knocked Apple TV completely out of the game and I thought I wanted it. The internet on my TV -- how perfect! I had to have it.

Then it made its first debut on the Logitech Revue set-top box. I remember Logitech had a field where you can enter in your email address to find out more about when the Revue would be available. A few weeks later I got that special email. The Revue was available for pre-order... for $299. Suddenly Google TV didn't seem so cool. I wasn't paying $300 for the internet on my television. So I decided to wait. I thought other companies would eventually load Google TV up on televisions and set-top boxes. Sure enough, Sony came out with their brand of Internet TVs and Blu-rays. Unfortunately, I didn't need either one. Since then, no other company has integrated Google TV into their products.

Then the reviews came out (and don't worry, this is where I make my point in the article). There's a bunch of mixed reviews on Google TV. Some really love it and some say it's a pain in the ass to set up and navigate. So let's analyze the positive and the negative. Let's assume those who love it love the fact that it's the first product to really merge internet and television. In that regard, Google has absolutely succeeded. That's exactly what Google TV does. You can use the full web browser, access bookmarks, play around with apps, plus watch all of your normal television programming.

Now let's analyze the negative reviews. It's hard to set up, the controls are odd, and it has a relatively large learning curve. Now that I've heard about all of these negatives, I think I've figured out the reasons for them. Who actually needs internet and television combined? Internet was not made to be showcased on large television screens. Websites aren't designed to be navigated with remotes. Both the Logitech Revue and the Sony Internet TVs come with keyboards built into the remote. Well, televisions aren't designed to be navigated with keyboards. It just doesn't fit together as seamlessly as Google hoped. And as I hoped.

It's a much more intimate experience when you browse the internet on a laptop, desktop, or even a tablet. They have everything you need to enjoy the internet the way it was meant to be enjoyed. Televisions do not have these necessities even though Google, Logitech, and Sony tried to make it so they do. I think that companies have this thought implanted in their minds that every major technology has to be eventually fused together. That's not the case this time around.

So what do I think is the best way to bring internet content to a television? Apps. There's no doubt that there's plenty of internet content that deserves to be on the television -- mainly videos. Apps can do this in a way that combines all the abundance of the internet with a proper user interface for televisions. This concept has already began to take off with the Boxee Box, Roku, new Samsung TVs announced at CES 2011 this year, and more. Even Apple is rumored to bring apps to Apple TV soon. I see this as the primary and best way to access internet content on your television. You can't redesign the entire web for use on a television, but you can fit different parts of the web into individual apps that will work great on a television because they can be designed to do so.

I hope that Google decides to embrace more apps in upcoming releases of Google TV. If they do, I can easily see Google TV being a very popular product. Lower prices probably wouldn't hurt the situation either. With consumers, everything is about being easy to use. When is the last time you've actually read an instruction manual? Exactly. Google TV has succeeded in bringing the full internet to your television, but they have failed to convince consumers it's seamless or even necessary.