Is Chromecast Google’s Trojan Horse For Television?

More than any other big technology company, Google is building for the future, undertaking blue-sky projects like wearable computers and self-driving cars that don’t have an obvious place in today’s world because it believes they’ll be ubiquitous in tomorrow’s.

Chromecast, the new $35 widget that lets you stream web video from your computer or mobile device to your television, isn’t that kind of product. It’s more of a bridge technology, a stopgap measure — a bit of a kludge, really. It’s certainly not the watch-anything-on-any-screen solution we keep hoping will arrive.