As a big fan of television (yes, yes, I also consume other media than strictly stuff from my laptop!!), I am delighted to hear that Yahoo is going to launch a new platform called ConnectedTV.Yahoo.com to connect television and Internet together. Another person who should be happy is my husband who’s always mumbling that he hates to plug his laptop to the television when we want to watch specific television shows or videos that are online. In the past, there were a couple of attempts by other companies to marry television and web, but I think this one smells good.

“TV Widgets enable popular Internet services and online media to reach viewers with applications specifically tailored to the needs of TV enthusiasts. The integrated Internet experience, powered by the Yahoo! Widget Engine, will be available in a variety of consumer electronic products, including television sets manufactured by Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics and VIZIO. With TV Widgets, developers can deliver new, interactive experiences to millions of television sets in 2009.

With your TV wired directly to the Internet, you go to a Yahoo site and install the widget of your choice on the Linux operating system working inside your TV. No PC, no keyboard, no mouse needed. The widget installs on your TV and begins introducing internet content as a sort of overlay on top of your regularly scheduled programming.

For instance, you might click a widget for eBay or Flickr from your widgets “dock” at the bottom of your TV screen, so you can shop or view photos while watching TV. But the most interesting widgets will be the ones that work in harmony with the shows. For instance, you might hit your Twitter widget, and begin “tweeting” about the show you’re watching in real time. Another widget could send you to a blog containing the latest gossip about whatever celeb happens to be on the screen. A YouTube or Hulu widget might send you to an Internet video of an episode that you missed. ”

Imagine that, I could be watching Moment of Truth and tweeting at the same time that contestant is a real prick! What can I girl ask more for 2009?! Okay, well maybe peace in the Middle-East and a better fiscal year…

Source :

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/01/08/yahoo-aims-connect-internet-and-tv

http://connectedtv.yahoo.com/