, which generally failed to wow the industry when it was first launched last year, is intended to give the company a presence in people's living rooms, where many newer televisions, game consoles, DVD players and other devices connect to the Internet.

"The initial version of Google TV wasn't perfect, but launching it gave us the opportunity to learn," wrote Google's Mario Queiroz, vice president of product management, and Vincent Dureau, director of engineering, on Friday.

Google TV, available currently on devices from Sony and Logitech, now has a revamped user interface that the company has attempted to make simpler by giving people more flexibility to customize it.

For example, the home screen features users' "favorite" content more prominently than before, and the "apps" section consolidates all shortcuts, according to Google.

The search functionality was also revised to make it easier to find movies and TV programs across a variety of sources, including listings from users' cable or satellite provider and stand-alone video streaming vendors like Netflix, Amazon and Google's YouTube.