Why I Won't Buy Google's New Chromecast

Google is desperate for a way to break into TV so it can feed ads to hapless viewers. Everyone knows the company wants to saturate premium service with ads to the extent of broadcast TV. In other words, if you buy a season of Homeland, Google will be adding ads to the normally ad-free content.

That's unless you actually think Google is playing this TV idea straight up and intends to compete with Apple TV($69.00 at Groupon), the leader in streaming TV.

People interested in streaming either use an existing device such as Microsoft's Xbox 360($118.99 at Amazon) or Nintendo's Wii U($900.00 at Amazon), or they buy a Roku($119.00 at Amazon), WD TV Live Hub or any number of cheap add-ons.

These devices tend to run all the major streaming services like Netflix, which will license its stream to anyone with a pulse. Google's new $35 Chromecast dongle begins with Netflix, which is no surprise, but what else does it offer? Well, pretty much nothing.

Google has not learned that just rolling out hardware is a non-starter. You have to come out of the chute flying high. I expected deals with everyone in advance on the announcement. Instead we just got Netflix.

Google is hoping that this won't matter because its real goal is to get TV set makers to build in Chromecast, even though many already have some streaming subsystem built in. Hey, Google, wake up!

In fact, at least for a while, LG built in Google TV, although all the marketing geniuses in Korea and Mountain View never publicized it.

Google specializes in search and advertising around search. Maybe it thinks people may want to search for a program or old TV show and thus this is a good idea for the company.

Everyone is drooling over the Chromecast despite having never plugged one in. I'd like to see how it actually performs before passing judgment. But since its only $35, many people will spring for one simply out of curiosity.

Like Google TV and the Nexus Q, I'm assuming this will end up in Google's trash heap of failed hardware experiments. And make no mistake, this is an experiment. Luckily this time it is a cheap experiment.

Even so, it is quite astonishing that such a little device can plug into an HDMI connection and stream video over Wi-Fi, converting it to a TV signal pushed out at HD resolution. I wonder who in China put that circuit together.

I'm still not getting one though. I already have a bunch of streaming devices that work well enough. I don't need another.