Every day, I wake up and ask myself: Why can’t TV be more like the web? Why can’t it be interactive? Why can’t it be social? Why can’t I get the Internet on my TV?
Ok, this isn’t the first thought I have, but I’ve definitely been thinking a lot about interactive TV. Just recently, I saw that Yahoo is delivering Samsung HDTVs that use Yahoo!’s Widget Engine. What are TV Widgets? They are tiny applications that allow some form of interactive web content that enhances the TV viewing experience.
Only select Samsung’s 2009 flat-panel HDTV lines will support the new TV Widget service, called “Internet@TV - Content Service.” The Samsung HDTVs will include an Ethernet port and allow for a Wi-Fi connection via a USB dongle. (What a weird world we live in when dongle and widget are actual tech words.)
Applications that will be enabled on TVs include a bunch of Yahoo! properties like Weather, News Finance and Flickr. Developers can also use the Widget Development Kit (WDK) to create almost anything to the TV. (I wonder if anyone will build some Google widgets, hmm.)
Overall, I was really happy to read that Yahoo’s Widgets would enable streaming video, like YouTube. It’s clearly a step in the right direction, and these kinds of Internet/TV hybrids will be the norm in the future.
What sucks is that this is not a standard; it’s Yahoo’s approach to TV widgets. Will programmers and content companies get behind it? Will they only want to deliver to Samsung HDTV sets? Clearly, Yahoo! sees this as a first step to signing on more TV manufacturers, however it’s too early to know what consumers will do with this.
My feeling is that Yahoo’s TV widgets are a great idea, but they won’t have much of an impact with anyone (consumers, advertisers, content owners, developers, etc.) because there will likely be slow adoption of broadband-enabled sets, and in particular, Samsung TV sets. Once Yahoo! signs up more TV manufacturers, it may be more compelling.
One thing I keep wondering is: What would Google do with broadband-enabled TV?
