Soon: Widgets on your TV (talk about Changes for the TV Business!)

TV-Widgets are here: Samsung just announced their first series of TVs that will be connected to the Internet, by default (see a demo of  Samsung's See'N'Search set-top box here). But here is the real big deal, imho (quote): "The Widget Channel - its official name - will be powered by Yahoo Widget Engine, allowing you to sit back on your sofa like a lazy couch potato, and enjoy small internet applications such as news and weather, all from your remote control." "Content will be accessible through an integrated Ethernet port or a Samsung wireless adaptor...." says ShinyShiny. 

What does this mean? Well, if you are into widgets (i.e. embeddable content objects, both web-based or desk-top based) on your computer or your iPhone (I think this crowd counts about 170-200 Million people right now - so this very early, still - but all of us brave consumers that buy those cool iPhone apps are basically widget users, now, too!), very soon you can, and probably will 1000s of widgets available on your 50+inch TV screen in your living room (or wherever else you "like to watch"). Imagine: stock tickers, tweets, RSS feeds, music widgets, social network messages, video streams, contvertising ;)  Now what will THAT do to the TV industry? Talking about competing for attention - a real challenge, imho.

Contagious Mag adds: "Yahoo! and Intel have joined forces to develop a Widget Channel which will allow users to access their favorite internet content whilst watching TV. The Widget Channel will utilise a comprehensive software network, built around the Yahoo! Widget Engine and delivered via an Intel set-top box. The result will be a series of TV Widgets, or as Yahoo! describes them - 'small Internet applications designed to complement and enhance the traditional TV experience'.  What this means, is that viewers will have instant access to news, sports results, weather reports and even feeds from websites such as Flickr. In order to make the fusing of internet and TV as seamless and intuitive as possible, there will also be a Widget Gallery function made available at a later date. This will allow users to customise each widget and how it is displayed, as well as publish them across multiple TV's and related devices"

Truly, we are heading into the Attention, Conversation and Participation Economy at mindboggling speed. This will also help to boost interactive services, 3D and Virtual World Experiences. More via the Yahoo/Intel press release, Video here (quality is not so hot but it's a good start)