If you are anything like me, you probably experienced quite a few instances of sports bewilderment while watching the Beijing Olympics over the last few weeks.  Dozens of sports were showcased, many of which are entirely foreign to the average viewer.  As a result, I’d wager the following questions were pondered by millions:

• “What’s the name of this sport, again?”
• “How exactly do the rules/scoring work?”
• “Is this a qualifying heat, or the final race?”
• “Which team would the winner of this match go on to play?”
• “Which star players on the court/field should I be keeping an eye on?”
• “What other related events will this athlete be competing in?”

While a viewer could answer any of these questions by visiting websites like NBCOlympics.com or Wikipedia, this equates to lousy user experience.  Most viewers aren’t going to want to get off the couch.  Even those armed with a laptop have to take their eyes off the TV, pull up a browser, and wade through the website to find their obscure answer.  Ugh.

But there’s good news!  I would wager that by the 2012 Olympic games, viewers will be able to find answers to all of the questions above (and more) simply by using their TV’s remote control.  How?  By using TV widgets.

In the case of the Olympics, the ideal implementation of TV widgets would allow the viewer to use his/her remote to pull up instant information about the event they’re watching.  Depending on what the viewer wants to know, they would be able to navigate through some straightforward menus and find out anything they wanted to know (including answers to all questions above).

Of course, things aren’t at this level quite yet… but they’re coming.  As media futurist Gerd Leonhard recently wrote (Soon: Widgets on your TV), Samsung just announced their first series of TVs that will be connected to the internet.

On one hand, this means we’ll be able to access the internet through our TVs, which is well and good.  But taken a step further, I’m guessing widgets will be pumped out to give users info relavant to whatever show they’re watching (not just the Olympics!).  A drama or sitcom, for instance, might one day present the viewer with widgets that answer:

• What show is this?  What is it about?
• Who are the major characters?  what are the on-going plot-lines?
• What happened in last week’s episode?
• Can I watch this episode with some director’s commentary?

The possibilities are endless, indeed.  To bring this back to the Olympics, I’d say that the 2012 games are the first big opportunity for this technology to showcase its true potential.   At that time, we’ll be able to put the laptop down, stay on the sofa, and hang on to the remote.  For it may be the only tool we’ll need to find the answers we’re looking for.

In the meantime, check out Gerd Leonhard’s article on TV widgets:

• Soon: Widgets on your TV (talk about Changes for the TV Business!)