So Google just announced their Google TV. It’s not like this is a surprise, and it’s nothing really revolutionary. It’s essentially a Windows Media Center combined with the ability to play YouTube-like on-demand clips on your TV.

From our perspective, we saw this coming for a long time. We used to advertise heavily on Google Adwords, until one day the criterion for advertisers magically changed and we were blacklisted. Now, you can’t run any Google ad that links to Applian.com. Even our corporate credit cards have been banned. Why did this happen? It’s very likely that Google has been negotiating content relationships with the big studios, who HATE anything having to do with recording media.

If Google could show these big guys that they too hated recording, it would help smooth the way towards getting these deals signed. Curiously, some of our competitors still advertise on “record streaming media” and other similar searches.
Legally, Google has the right to refuse to run any ads they deem unfit. However, if they are blacklisting specific advertisers to protect another part of their business, then it’s my understanding that this practice is illegal. Any IP lawyers out there want to chime in?

Despite Google’s efforts, our business is thriving, as we have many different ways of recording streaming videos through our Replay Capture Suite – all of them legal. Our Replay Video Capture will always be able to record Google TV legally, no matter what kind of copy protection scheme they put on top of it.