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Carlos Manalo currently serves as the Group Director of User Experience for WhittmanHart Interactive. He has over 10 years of interactive marketing and user-experience design experience with clients such as CBSNews, Caterpillar, ATT Wireless, Ebaymotors, Allstate, United Airlines, Crate and Barrel, Harley-Davidson, Sears.

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Features

The Widget Gold Rush

Written on
August 16th 2007
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by Carlos Manalo  |
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explosion.jpgGaze across the Web 2.0 landscape of networked identities, communities, data models and interface mash-ups and everyone is building widgets. Why?
 
Some background before we set out to answer the question. Web Widgets and/or Gadgets are small portable micro-user experiences that users can embed into their web pages employed to either showcase features, stories, and functions OR to give users quick access to frequently scanned/queried content, tools, and systems.

Recent coverage in the press indicates that this is not a flash in the pan. There is critical mass forming, and big bets that are being made. Widgets are hot properties and disruptors, and top marketers are building positioning strategies around these things. 

Case in point: Facebook is betting the farm on going open-platform in the hopes that giving developers a platform and system wherein these widgets are easy to engineer, integrate, and monetize will translate to increased user adoption, increased impressions, and ultimately (in true 2.0 fashion), deeper, more natural, and viral user advocacy.

It’s a bet that is beginning to pay off: 

*Since going open platform in May, 2007, thousands of developers have signed on and there are now about 1800 facebook “applications” available for easy integration into every Facebook profile page.

*Earlier in June, the Internet metrics firm, comScore, launched a service to track widget use across various web properties: the comScore Widget Metrix.

*User sign-ups for Facebook have increased. Comscore reports an 89% increase for facebook users.

So what’s all the hubbub all about anyway? Why are these distributable micro-web properties so important? What are the real opportunities for widget makers?

They drive up increases in frequency of visits, as well as time spent on web pages that contain them (both for the page owners, as well as page visitors for sites like myspace and facebook.) The more useful, engaging, and relevant widgets are on any given page, the more likely users will spend time on that page whether they be owners or visitors. 

For example, a personalized Google portal page that only has the standard search widget and some newsfeeds on it, will probably have lower usage statistics than a Google portal page that has the search widget, the newsfeeds, localized weather, an ebay watchlist, a gmail module, and a flight tracker installed on it. By clustering a higher number of relevant utilities, it is a lot stickier.

Sliced another way, a standard, non-widgetized Facebook or MySpace page by today’s standards warrants maybe a couple of minutes worth of exploration by any given visitor. 

Add a cluster of widgets that showcase a personal music playlist, an interactive photo feature from Slide, and some real-time Twitter posts via RSS, the visitor now has the impetus to stick around, explore, be engaged, and get to know that person better in multiple dimensions (time, taste, and memories.) 

Best case scenario, the visitor will be incited to adopt one of the impactful widgets as something that they too, can own and feature.

Consider the opportunities for just Facebook and MySpace for marketers looking to carve out their share in the emerging widget-sphere:

 Number of Users                   

Facebook: 7,000,000

MySpace: 22,000,000

Total: 29,000,000

           

Page Views/Month

Facebook: 5,500,000,000

MySpace: 7,800,000,000

Total: 13,300,000,000

           

Average Page Views/Month/User 

Facebook: 786

MySpace: 355

Total: 1,140      

(sources: Newsweek, March, 2006; Newsweek, March, 2006; WSJ, April, 2006; Intermix SEC Filing)

The sheer number of potential page views and overall stickiness of these sites makes widgets extremely attractive investments for development because of the relatively low cost and low barriers to entry, with a high potential return on investment. Especially when compared to the cost of paid placements and developing corresponding and relevant experiential landing pages or mini-sites.

And this is not even factoring in the personal portals that players like Google, Yahoo, and Netvibes are currently putting out there.

Putting it into context: what’s a more cost-effective and relevant investment an ecommerce site like Amazon:

A series of paid banner placements promoting wishlist functionality, or a branded wishlist widget right there on user’s public profiles? Wishlist widget hands down. Less money, potentially deployable across multiple social networking sites and portal pages, higher level of interactions, involvement, utility, and usage, and builds equity with the users since it is a tool and not just a message.

So why the hubbub and why are widgets so important? Consider the manifest attributes:

*Further decentralization and extensibility of data and utilities

*Empowers user ownership over online experiences at an atomized level

*Extends the power of data-driven online systems and tools through scalable, modular, distributable micro-experiences

*Forces innovation in online marketing conceptualization and valuation

And finally, why invest in widgets?

*Because they provide high value entries into properties within portals and social networking sites

*Because users are adopting, using, and going viral with them

*Because the emerging models are only going to mature and improve, and as marketers, architects, and designers, we cannot afford not to be in lock step with the wants and needs of the audience we are trying to build for.



Reader Comments.

Know the widget is not good eiather i don’t like it at all

Posted by Ana | 11:59 pm on August 17, 2007.

oops. Thinks I posted prematurely.
(only post this with the first post)

It’s time for the online media world to harness the power of the distributed web and I welcome a conversation with anyone that wants to talk in greater detail about these industry changing trends.

Posted by Ben Pashman | 3:18 pm on August 21, 2007.

I keep getting timed out o nmy original post:

Great article Carlos. Thanks for bringing up this important game changing trend in our industry. I am speaking to many brand agencies and advertisers about branded widget distribution and it is clear that while everyone agrees this is a very imoortant trend which was confirmed by the most recent Forrester research http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2196857/traditional-marketing-failing-social-networks

there is still much work to be done. There is an education process taking place about what a widget is and how to best leverage the distributed web for your client or brand. Other questions about the value of a “user endorsed” impression vs. a conventional ad unit impression is another very interesting discussion.

Once an advertiser manages to build a compelling piece of content how can they effectively distribute that content? There is always the chance of it going viral but this is more hope then reality. We at gigya are building the next gen widget distribution platform and I welcome any and all online advertising professionals to engage in this most interesting and important dialogue.

Posted by Ben Pashman | 3:47 pm on August 21, 2007.

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