Design April 13, 2009, 4:46PM EST

Can Widgets Save the Television Industry?

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"Instead of another new element, weird animation, or another color flashing up, it feels like a piece of your television screen is sliding up into place to give you some information," says Rose.

Finding the simplest interface

Industry analysts are broadly supportive of the initiative, saying that the timing for Web-enabled television is finally right. In a March report for market tracker Forrester, titled The Year of the Connected TV, principal analyst James L. McQuivey deems that "a small but significant revolution" is underway. By McQuivey's reckoning, a million American homes will have an Internet-enabled television set by the end of 2009. Samsung, which brands the initiative Internet@TV, will offer 17 models in 13 countries by midyear.

Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst at Diffusion Group, a consultancy in Frisco (Tex.), applauds Yahoo's design and user-focused approach. Early Web TV efforts were noteworthy mainly for their failings, being difficult to install and impossible to navigate. Now, says Greeson: "not only are consumers ready for Internet content and applications to be delivered to their TV, but they are looking for the simplest interface you can get. They don't want the Internet dumped on their television set. They don't want browsers. They don't want URLs. They want a seamless, easy-to-use interface."

Yahoo's system still has kinks. The demo version divides widgets between those sponsored by Yahoo and those by Samsung. Both companies have struck deals requiring such polarized promotion, but a user doesn't care who sponsored what. The awkward division makes the widget browsing process clunky, even when, as now, there are only few of them to browse.

Then there's the still unresolved issue of the very different experiences supplied by television and the Internet. The former is often a sociable activity, the latter rather less so. Executives argue that many people have a laptop open while they're watching television, but would viewers want to broadcast their private Twitter feed onscreen while the family is gathered around to watch a show? "It could be awkward," admits Rose.

For the most part, Yahoo and Samsung executives argue that users will be able to choose when to access the Web on their TVs. And users, too, will ultimately determine whether a widget is successful. Unpopular or badly designed widgets will simply not be adopted.

And, says Diffusion's Greeson, this is just the beginning of experimentation and innovation in the space. While the initial TV sets are expensive—$1,800 and up for Samsung's versions—he predicts prices will fall sharply and more firms including cable companies and pay-TV operators will soon jump in. "The concept has been validated in the mobile space; the iPhone is a proxy for what can happen in widget-enabled TV," he says. "This is a battle. Internet connection to the TV will redefine the entire television business."

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Helen Walters is the editor for BusinessWeek.com's Innovation and Design Channel .