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Jerry Yang and Sue Decker Talk About Yahoo’s Connected TV at CES

Usually, BoomTown plays the stalker of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. But, with an interesting product to show off, this time he invited me and also Walt Mossberg to take an on-the-floor look-see at the company’s new “Connected TV” effort yesterday.

Wading into what has been a longtime dead end for many tech companies–bringing the Internet to the television–Yahoo (YHOO) has struck a deal with South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung and other major television makers to put its software in televisions to link them to the Internet.

Using an onscreen dock, Yahoo is presenting its own services (like Flickr) and those from outside Web sites (YouTube) with this “widget engine.” With a regular remote, you can click through these applications easily and launch them in a side screen.

Yahoo hopes to create an entire ecosystem of these widgets, similar to what is occurring with the iPhone.

Publishers and vendors can use Yahoo’s open technology, although the company will offer monetization services, keeping itself at the center of the platform.

In the short amount of time I used it, it’s a nice effort and an important one if Yahoo is to try to lead in being a key player in devices other than computers.

Here’s the video of me talking to Yang (check out his attempted scary stare at me at the start!) and Yahoo President Sue Decker about Connected TV, along with an interview with Yahoo’s point man on other devices, Connected Device EVP Marco Boerries.

Here’s the video (I had to use YouTube to upload it, since Brightcove isn’t downloading properly):

Comments

  1. It was delightful to see Bill and Steve sharing a stage and reminiscing about their stuff, but I was surprised that Bill (gadgets) and Steve (widgets) didn’t settle the debate about the original inventor of the widget.

    One can never have too many widgets. Somebody codes something you never even dreamed of wanting – suddenly everybody

    lig tv izle
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    şiir türleriçetchatsohbet needs a whole bunch of widgets because they don’t impinge too much on the screen/template real estate.

    Posted by erdem ela at April 17th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

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Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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