With the advent of Yahoo Widgets embedded in TV sets and the interactivity that will allow the viewers, its no surprise that Cable companies are following suit. Soon you will be able to browse Ebay or your Facebook page. Find related videos on Youtube to the show your watching and other interactive things courtesy of Verizon.

The cable company is planning to allow developers to program applications for its cable TV boxes, like Apple has done with the iPhone.

The applications or ‘Widgets’ will run on the TV screen as you watch a show and allow you to do things related to what your watching. Or if the show is really boring just Twitter.

Verizon are hoping it will cause a creative splurge by developers, as Apple’s apps which have thousands of innovative and quirky programs made by outside programmers.

Verizon thus becomes the first cable TV company to jump on a bandwagon of mobile phone backers that are opening up their gadgets, including Google, Microsoft and BlackBerry maker RIM.

Joseph Ambeault, spokesman for Verizon said:- “We’re already talking to a range of major Internet companies about how they can get their programs on this platform. We’ve yet to hear anything but ‘Yes’ from them.”

Verizon have already tested apps using Facebook to blend into what you are watching on TV and updating your profile with the show your watching. Flikr and Kodak Picture Gallery test applications will pull in photos from a customer’s photo account for an on-the-TV slideshow. A Twitter test application brings up a user’s Twitter profile and displays any of short messages by anyone who mentions a show the user is watching.

Verizon’s move represents a major shift in how cable TV companies think about the TV experience.

Typically, cable companies considered the cable TV box sacred. Customers could change channels, but as for how the box worked, that was only up to the cable company.

“It’s fascinating that they’re trying this,” said Phil Leigh, president of the research company Inside Digital Media. “After Apple opened up their iPhone, a lot of people started trying this.”

Verizon still has a relatively small cable TV customer base, Leigh notes, with just 1.9 million customers at the end of 2008. But that is growing.

“It will be interesting to see how much leeway they give developers do to things like use TV shows within their programs. … Ultimately, customers will want their TV to do just about anything on the Internet.”

Within the next few months, Verizon plans to offer up a software developer’s kit for potential programmers to explore and devise their own ideas for a widget, including widgets that generate them revenue.

More expected Verizon cable TV changes coming soon:-

• Easier Internet video on the TV screen. The new Verizon system lets viewers search for videos that reside on their home PCs or on YouTube, DailyMotion, Break, Blip and Veoh displaying them on the TV.

• Better links between Verizon Wireless phones and cable TV boxes, including a way to program your DVR from your Verizon phone.

• Easier searches for video on demand TV content.

• Community forum areas where groups could add information about their schools, events and other activities.

• Commercials that run before video on demand shows and movies, which Verizon said would help attract far more titles to the company’s library, which now stands at more than 12000 titles.

The one thing that will still be missing is a link up to Hulu streams, and its likely that it never will arrive judging by Hulu’s Draconian ways lately.

Related posts:

1. Netflix jumping aboard the internet TV bandwagon
2. Why Widgets Will Make Internet TV Boom
3. Sky TV jumping aboard the online tv train
4. Intel Chips And Widgets Are The Future Of TV
5. Yahoo widgets finally appearing on Samsung TV sets