Amazon’s Fire TV devices add web browsers to access YouTube
The Silk and Firefox browsers are a way around Google's blocking scheme.
Browsing the web on the big screen in your living room isn't something many of us are clamoring for. Still, Amazon already added its own Silk browser to select Fire TV devices last month, but is expanding its availability to all Fire TV gadgets today. It's adding Firefox as a second web browsing option, too. Both browsers are available on every Fire TV device in all countries they are sold in starting today -- just in time too, since the browsers help owners get around Google's YouTube block.
Amazon says that its Silk browser has been optimized for Fire TV with an interface you can use to search, browse and launch curated bookmarks for the web with the Fire TV remote. "With full web browsers on Fire TV, our customers' entertainment and information options are greatly expanded," said Amazon's Marc Whitten in a statement. "We want to make it easy for customers to access the Web from the comfort of their couch."
Mark Mayo, a senior vice president at Firefox, says that his company's browser will let viewers "surface a multitude of web content — including videos." If using your phone or tablet to surf the web while watching content on Fire TV isn't enough, this should make some folks happy -- but probably not the ones at Google's HQ,.
