Yesterday, Intel and Yahoo announced a joint initiative to bring internet widgets to the television. The plan is to have a new "Widget Channel" which will be a widget platform for devices, such as televisions, running on Intel's hardware. This is a team effort that both companies believe may help to boost consumer interest in the living-room-web market, which has so far seen a lot of products but not many takers.The widget platform will support various technologies, such as JavaScript, HTML, XML and Adobe Flash. The companies hope that this will allow a small library of widgets to be included alongside standard television viewing content. Examples include being able to track eBay auctions you're currently bidding on or sports widgets to keep up-to-date with current scores. This move is quite similar to the ideas espoused by Plaxo when it was bought by Comcast and both are aimed at bringing more content to more users on more consumer electronic devices.
Yahoo! believes that this will be good for the consumer without being intrusive. In a recent press release, it described the widgets as:
"... designed to... bring content, information and community features available on the Internet within easy reach of the remote control... TV Widgets will enable consumers to engage in a variety of experiences, such as watching videos, tracking their favourite stocks or sports teams, interacting with friends, or staying current on news and information.
"Viewers will be able to use TV Widgets to deepen their enjoyment of the programming they are watching, discover new content and services, or share their favourites with friends and family."
The most interesting part of this move is how both companies insist that OEMs who sign up to put the widget channel on their box must offer the consumer access to all of the widgets in the gallery. The gallery will be managed by Yahoo! and will offer services by any company that uses the widget platform. As a concept, it may be somewhat confusing to have a provider providing access to widgets that will stream third-party web services but, overall, it could just work.
That said, while the widgets could come in handy for certain consumers, it could also be a huge turn off for others. Many people feel that television is an escape from constant alerts and messages and just want to put up their feet and relax, keeping the realms of web surfing and television watching separate. This is something both Intel and Yahoo! seem to want to change.
Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the company's Digital Home Group, commented, "TV will fundamentally change how we talk about, imagine and experience the Internet."
But will this sort of interactive television ever really kick off? This bigmouth thinks that if the interactions are totally customisable - and not too intrusive - it could well be the case that TV Widgets will make its way into our homes in the future.
