Yep, it’s finally happening: Honeycomb, the Android Market, and what look like many other pretty sweet improvements for functionality and navigability are all finally coming to Google TV in round two, and they are less than a week away. Starting with Sony Google TV’s and with the Logitech Revue to follow “shortly thereafter”, Google is releasing the long awaited Honeycomb Android 3.1 update “early next week”, and catapulting Google TV into it’s next phase. From the official announcement as well as the flashy overview (*drool*), it appears that Google has really taken the past year of setbacks to really focus on improving the Google TV experience by responding to user feedback. The new and improved Google TV is set apart in four major ways, which you can read about after the break.

• Cleaned Up: The simplified interface features a customizable homepage to get you to your favorites fast, and includes an extended “all apps” section that mimics your Android phone or tablet.

• Searching Made Simple: Improved searching for content on Live TV, Netflix, Youtube, etc, makes it easier to find what you are looking for– there’s an app for that–and  it can even make predictive recommendations if you aren’t sure.
• Channeling YouTube: Experience a YouTube made for TV and bent to your will. Closer integration with Google TV search makes it easy to find your favorite YouTube videos and lets you make virtually any topic into a channel.
• Did Anyone Order More Apps?: While Google seems to warn that the initial number of apps still isn’t huge, there’s nothing like a little demand to light a developer’s fire. Google remains confident that the number of both existing mobile apps and entirely new made-for-TV apps will continue to grow.

It seems that while the first time around Google TV focused on the idea that we crave exposure to a new way to interact with TV,  with this update they are keying in on the fact that we don’t just want to experience it, we want to control it. Google TV 2.0 offers tons of new ways to personalize the system, pin-point content and have a fully user-focused experience when tuning in with Google TV. Be sure to check out the videos below, and stay tuned as the update arrives and we find out if this is truly the Google TV we had been hoping for.