Google plugs YouTube into Playstation 3

To the surprise of no one, Google is now offering software that streams video, photos, and music from your PC to your television.

"In the old days, we used to watch a simple device called a television. Nowadays, all the stuff worth watching and listening to tends to be stored on or accessed through a computer," writes software engineer David Garcia on the Google Desktop blog. "To help remedy this, we are pleased to release the Google Media Server."

The Google Media Server - available here - is a free Windows app that sends media files to your TV via the Playstation 3 and other Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) devices. It works in tandem with Google Desktop, the desktop search tool that also runs various and sundry software widgets known as Google Gadgets.

With help from the Google Media Server, your TV can access videos, music, and photos stored on your PC, and naturally, it can tap straight into YouTube, the video-sharing site where Google hopes to serve an enormous number of advertisements.

Google is already streaming YouTube videos into living room via third-party devices like Apple TV and HP's Media Smart TV. And now it's reaching out for the Playstation 3 crowd.

But this is just a Google beta. And it may go nowhere. Judging from the Google Media Server discussion forums, the new app is hardly ready for prime time. ®