When it comes to accessing Web content on the TV, Samsung and Yahoo! are treading along the same worn trail that America Online used to introduce the American public to the Internet.
"We don't think people want the whole Web browser experience crammed in a TV," Yahoo! senior director of Connect TV marketing Russ Schafer said. "It is a best-of-the-Web, not all-of-the-Web comparison which is similar to how people consume television."
It's also eerily similar to how AOL spoon-fed the Internet to its initial subscribers, making it easy to select certain Internet sites; AOL did include a Web browser for the more advanced user, but highlighted its own content searches.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of flat screen TVs and memory chips, has expanded its Yahoo! Connect TV partnership to a total of 39 countries where it markets TVs loaded with Yahoo! software widgets that let viewers access Yahoo's online content without browsing the Web.
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