Yahoo Gets in Bed with Samsung

TV and the Web just got hitched. (Or maybe renewed their vows from last CES.) At Samsung’s Wednesday afternoon press conference, both Samsung and Yahoo announced that they were coordinating to bring Internet connectivity to Samsung HDTVs in a hybrid Yahoo refers to as Cinematic Internet.

The Web company has adapted its well-known Yahoo Widget engine to Samsung’s TVs in order to bring them Web connectivity, such as access to MySpace, eBay, Pandora, and Netflix. The Widget engine, now in its fifth generation, received a completely reworked user interface in the process of porting it to be used on consumer electronics devices. In a brief demo, widgets slid across a bar at the bottom of a TV screen and acted like tabs, opening additional features upon highlighting them.

The features will come with on all of Samsung’s Medi@ 2.0 branded televisions, a feature which will reach the higher-end TVs in its line.