Google TV gets new personalized recommendations feature

Google steadily improves on the new Google TV experience.

What you need to know

• Google is improving how its recommendations work on Google TV as it begins taking user preference into account.
• It’s only available on TVs and not the Google TV app on mobile.
• You’ll be able to try it when it finishes rolling out across the U.S. this week.

If there’s one thing Google is good at, it’s recommending you stuff. Whether it’s stuff to watch on YouTube, stuff to listen to with YouTube Music, improvements to your photos, etc., the company is good at its shtick.

For owners of the Chromecast with Google TV, the company is expanding how its recommendations systems work to the new device with a new feature coming this week.

The Google TV team announced via blog post:

Starting this week, you can help train Google TV on the big screen to give you better recommendations by sharing your preferences. In Settings, click “Content Preferences” and quickly rate a series of movies and shows to instantly refresh your recommendations.

Basically, you’ll be able to tell Google what sort of stuff you like and what sort of stuff you don’t like, Google will look at what you’ve actually told them, and it’ll use that extra information to build your content profile.

Google notes that this is coming to Google TV only, so you won’t find this on the app for Android and iOS, unfortunately. The Google TV app remains exclusive to U.S. users at this time, though it may come worldwide eventually.

Chromecast with Google TV

$50 at Best Buy
$50 at Walmart
$50 at B&H

The Chromecast with Google TV is Google’s first real TV stick in the traditional sense. Coming in three sleek colors, the low-price and thoughtful interface make this a tempting product.