WebProNews

Yahoo has announced partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics and Vizo to provide TV widgets to a new line of Internet connected television sets.

The new TVs supporting the Yahoo TV widgets are slated to be available in early spring of this year.

The TV widgets can be used for a number of online activities including social networking on MySpace, messaging friends on Twitter, following stocks and sports, along with a variety of Yahoo's branded services such as Yahoo News.

"Consumers are increasingly looking for a richer TV experience, including the ability to integrate personalized Internet content and interactive experiences on the screen," said Allen Weiner, Research VP, Gartner.

"Those companies who succeed as leading TV 2.0 portals will be those well positioned to make the connected TV a reality through strong global partnerships, innovative technology and expertise in creating open platforms. Developers will have the tools to bring the best of the Internet to TV, thus increasing the amount of Internet-enabled content and services available and ultimately transforming the TV viewing experience for millions of consumers."

In August of 2008, Yahoo and Intel announced a partnership providing developers and publishers with tools to create interactive TV widgets. Yahoo and Intel have made a Widget Development Kit (WDK) available to developers, CE manufacturers, advertisers and content publishers.