Google refreshes Fiber TV with personalized recommendations, show ratings

Google today announced software updates to Fiber TV, its over-the-top streaming television offering for Google Fiber customers. They’ll be available right away for new Fiber TV customers once the necessary hardware has been set up, and current customers will see the updates in the next few weeks.

Now the system will recommend TV shows and movies.

“So if you regularly watch The Walking Dead on AMC, it might suggest a show you haven’t seen, like American Horror Story on FX,” Google Fiber product manager Lawrence Kim wrote in a blog post.

Also, when users look at shows, they’ll see ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. The DVR and Smart Search components of Fiber TV have been given facelifts too, Kim wrote.

Above: Part of the new look of Google Fiber TV.

Image Credit: Google

The launch comes amid reports of changes in Google’s Fiber expansion strategy — so Google is revamping the user interface. This makes sense given that recently Apple revamped Apple TV with tvOS 10 and Amazon updated its Fire TV.

Fiber TV hasn’t gotten a great lot of updates since Google launched it in 2012. But earlier this year Google did add Cast support to the system.