Hacking MySpace

Myspace, Intel and Yahoo have launched a social networking application that allows people to surf Myspace on their TV while watching it. This means people can read and reply to messages, comments and everything else without being at their computer.

The new Myspace widget was announced ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show, that took place in Las Vegas on January 8-11th. It will be available on any Internet-connected consumer electronics, such as set-top boxes, Blu-ray players and TVs, the companies said. Although no exact launch date was provided it is assumed that it will be released in the near future.

Basically Myspace, Intel and Yahoo have developed a widget that will be able to sit at the bottom of your TV screen and used whenever you wish. It was developed by Myspace using a set of development tools that Intel and Yahoo have created called the Widget Channel. For anyone interested the widget channel was created so that applications can be made for TV’s that use information from the Internet to complement what is on the TV (e.g. a widget could allow someone to purchase a product that was on an advert from an online store without them having to go to a computer).

From what I know this Myspace widget will allow people to view profiles and receive updates (messages, comments, etc) and reply to these updates accordingly directly on their TV screen, without the need of an Internet browser or having to refresh a page for updates to appear. To reply to updates you would use your remote to type whatever you wanted with an on screen keyboard.

Now in my opinion I really hate this widget. It will either be a great development for them or just a flop, and I would guess that it will be the latter.

Okay so I’m not one for sitting watching TV and being on the Internet at the same time, I like to concentrate on whatever I am doing, I mean while I am watching a TV show I don’t like being online as well (e.g. on a laptop) because I miss parts of the show and it just ruins it. It’s kind of like having someone come into the room and start talking to you when your obviously trying to watch something. I know a lot of people won’t share this opinion and do like to surf the Internet while watching TV, but most of these people have laptops or a computer near their TV so they are able to do this, and most wouldn’t like to be limited to only surfing one site (Myspace) while doing it.

I think that this is just an attempt to try and make TV more interactive, but like the attempts before I think this will end up nowhere. Its either that or an attempt to try and combine the audiences of Fox and Myspace (both owned by Rupert Murdoch). Either way I really think it is pointless and they won’t get many people using it, but I have been wrong in the past.

What do you think about it all?

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