Google has teamed up with up Intel and Sony to develop an Android-powered internet platform for televisions and set-top boxes.

According to New York Times, sources say that Google intends to open its TV platform, which is based on its Android operating system for smartphones, to software developers.

Google hopes the move will conjure up a similar amount of creativity that consumers have seen in applications for cellphones.

Logitech International SA, producer of personal-computer accessories, is also playing a significant role.

The partners envision technology that will make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications, like the Twitter social network and the Picasa photo site, as it is to change the channel, the source said.

The project has been in the works for the past several months, the source said, but would not reveal further information.

The convergence between videos online and television is increasingly becoming a popular target for expansion. Cisco Systems, Motorola, Microsoft, Apple, TiVo and start-up companies like Roku and Boxee - which already stream video from Netflix, MLB.com - have all ventured into video on demand in TV sets.

Yahoo is also promoting a TV platform that uses small software programs called widgets to use certain Web services.

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