Basically the widgets employ unsold ad space to promote other pages within a domain deemed relevant to StumbleUpon users through its index technology. When a stumbler views a page using the tool, links within the widget prompt the user to visit more internal pages that may be of interest.

StumbleUpon continues to refer more social media referral traffic than all non-Facebook social sites — it actually overtook Facebook in social referral traffic last December. The company reports that publishers that implement StumbleUpon Badges, which facilitate sharing of content with other stumblers, see 20% to 25% more traffic from StumbleUpon.

Now with more than 15 million registered users, StumbleUpon is recording more than a billion stumbles a month, with users spending an average of six hours every month stumbling across the web.

Premium video is hands down the most lucrative online ad platform, while social media is currently the hottest trend. An upcoming Forrester Research report indicates that despite the recession, advertisers plan to boost their spending on social media.

“Marketers will increase spending in social media during a recession as this cost-effective tool set allows customers to spread the word quickly at low cost,” said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester. “Secondly, expect an increase in consumer adoption of these tools as people strive to reconnect with former colleagues, polish their personal brands, and get education on new job skills.”

There are varying views on how big this trend will be, EMarketer, expects advertising on social networking sites to rise about 10 percent in 2009 to $1.3 billion. eMarketer, meanwhile, believes that experimental ad formats — including those on social networks — will be hard-hit by the recession.

What’s clear is that clients today want to cut through the clutter and be seen and heard by new and existing clients. With today’s on-the-go technologies becoming less expensive and more mobile, we are seeing new forms of engagement with customers. Here are some new advertising vehicles that you can expect to see more of in the near future as marketers try to capitalize on the latest trends:

‘Widget-ize’ Your Ads – Last year seemed to be the year of the widget. Seemingly, everyone wanted one and they now proliferate web sites and ad networks everywhere, providing entertainment, news, sports, weather and casual games. Widget technology is now merging with ad units. Companies like Snap.com and MediaForge are offering widget-ized ad units that engage viewers in a unique way. When a viewer rolls over a MediaForge ad unit, the ad expands to display a full functioning widget offering a more immersive experience. The widget displays an exclusive product offering, including a picture and the price with a comparison to its retail and discount pricing. Viewers can also browse top sellers and clearance items. They can also dynamically search a retailer’s web site without ever leaving the ad. The ad unit also provides users the option of transporting the widget to their desktop, where they can continue to receive daily special offers.

SnaggableAds – SnaggableAds have a widget component that can be easily grabbed from any PointRoll ad unit and shared across social networks, start pages and blogs. The viral distribution capability of these ads spreads the advertiser’s brand across the Internet, while letting advertisers monitor the widget’s progress and user engagement long after it has been grabbed from the initial ad.

Integrated Content Strategies – Companies like Mochilla are providing a new style of advertising in the form of ‘integrated content,’ which is inserted directly into publishers’ web sites. This provides an entirely new layer of content to tell your stories. They can also include social networking and widget capabilities to expand the engagement.

Mobile Ads – Will this finally be the year of mobile? The iPhone was game changing and perhaps has finally set the foundation for true penetration of the mobile market. With the cost of high-speed networks coming down, and all major manufacturers scrambling to get their touch-screen handheld phones to market, we have seen opportunities open up. People are using their mobile phones to access all types of digital content. This presents a huge opportunity for companies to provide value to clients and engage them in conversational mobile marketing. Recently Papa John’s Pizza launched its mobile pizza ordering application, which has reportedly driven more than one million in revenues.
Video Ads – Video ads are driving one of the highest rates in the online advertising world, with premium video supporting an average CPM of $35. Long form video adoption is also growing. Some 27 percent of Internet users are now watching full-length TV shows online (source: eMarketer 2008). Online video viewers are also 25 percent more engaged with content and 47 percent more engaged with ads, according to a recent study by Simmons.

In-Game and In-Application Ads – We are seeing relevant examples of advertising within games such as the recent example of retailer Guitar Center partnering with Activision to be the in-game virtual music store for its popular video game, Guitar Hero. It appears the combination is a hit as the musical instrument retailing industry has seen record year-over-year competitive store increases since the game was first introduced.
‘Un-Roll’ Ad Units- Blinx, an online video platform, recently launched a new online video ad unit named ‘Un-roll, which features a “branded curtain” that loads while the video buffers. After the curtain opens, an overlay launches while the video plays. All typical video advertising options are available inside the video window and the video ends with the curtain again.

These and other new forms of marketing are emerging and finding receptive audiences in this new socially oriented marketplace.

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Of the respondents, 78 percent said they are planning to raise their spending on cost-per-action/acquisition formats this year, according to the Vertical Search (B2B) Report 2009, published by Econsultancy and sponsored by Convera. In addition, 67 percent plan to increase spending on cost-per-lead; just under half will increase spending on cost-per-click; and 29 percent said their spending on CPM, cost-per-mille /online display advertising, will increase this year.

“Publishers… more than ever need to… adapt to trends such as… performance-based advertising and the increased use of widgets,” said Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s research director.

Also, 47 percent of respondents said they are more likely than last year to be using widgets, desktop or in-browser, that provide customized internet marketing and business information, compared to 35 percent of internet marketing professionals a year ago.

The 2009 Vertical Search Report is a follow-up to research conducted a year ago among publishers and advertisers to determine how digital marketing professionals are facing  challenges to try to monetize offerings. It is based on an online survey of more than 500 media and internet professionals.

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While ads are a necessary and accepted part of a website by most, they are typically slotted immediately as just that. To overcome this, all sorts of widgets, games, puzzles, videos and other elements are embedded to make the ad stand out even more. Stroll though Yahoo and a Ford is likely to drive across the screen while you play Tic-Tac-Toe inside a Dove ad. Sure, these engagements are valuable and all of these elements help in the branding process, but the venue plays a big role in supporting the delivery of the message.

With the content networks, things are a bit different. This audience is more focused. They are reading about your industry, researching options, and in general, consuming specific types of content about a specific subject matter. It also goes beyond search. These people did not just look for your product or service. In cases where the subject matter of the page is very specific and targeted, we’ve found that unobtrusive banners that appear to be an integral part of the page often work best.

Imagine you’re on a tech related blog getting the latest info on new IT security threats. What are you more likely to respond to, an ad with beautiful graphics including professional product photography that introduces a new security software suite, or a simple ad with an appealing yet toned-down color palette that says click here to view the latest threat matrix and most recent security threats? The latter often outperforms.

The key is understanding the behavior of your audience as it relates to the specific sites you are targeting. In other words, what are they doing there? What are they looking for? The more specific you can be in what you put in front of them and the more it relates to the content they are already consuming, the more likely they will be receptive to your offer and respond to your ad.

And it is for this reason that we say design for the sake of beautiful design does not always equal maximum return. Sometimes, simple, clean and to the point wins the day. So as usual, test, test, test and see what works best!

Gigya will use the capital to fund Wildfire and Socialize, two widget services.

HealthiNation, a health video ad network, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of funding led by Intel Capital and joined by existing investor MK Capital. The funding will be used to grow its programming, ad sales and operations.

Partners can embed widgets from other blogs onto their sites. The network also allows partners to customize the ads on their site. Revenue will be shared 50/50 between MOG and partners on a CPM basis.

“We’re not just repping ads here,” said David Hyman, MOG’s CEO and founder. “MOG has already built the largest pure music blogging platform. Now we’re opening MOG’s doors and integrating independent music blogs into our platform. They get to find a brand new audience while benefiting from our back end of community and streaming music.”

Hyman continued, “The inspiration for MOG Music Network came directly from music bloggers; they wanted to write once, and publish multiple times — simultaneously on their own blogs and throughout the MOG network. We delivered that capability as well as the opportunity to generate ad revenue.”

MOG also said that it has welcomed record producer Rick Rubin to its board of directors.

MOG was launched in July of 2006.

WidgetBucks publishers and bloggers can pick from a catalog of over 100 pre-designed skins to apply to their new or existing WidgetBucks shopping ad widgets. Ranging from iPhone to XM Radio and handbags to holidays, category themes include technology, electronics, entertainment, sports, fashion, video games, “green” and more. All are available in six IAB standard sizes.

In a recent poll of WidgetBucks publishers, electronics/gadgets and tech/computers were the top two most desired skin types (each receiving 15% of the vote), while entertainment and video games ranked third and fourth, respectively.

“We foresee a day when all online advertising will be widget-based,” said Matt Hulett, CEO and chairman of Mpire and WidgetBucks. “Naturally, the more dynamic, relevant and engaging the ads, the more profitable Web publishers and bloggers become, especially within the Long Tail.”

WidgetBucks has also expanded their network in Europe, starting with the U.K. The company said clients in the U.K. are seeing fantastic results: Prior to this, the company only offered CPM earnings outside the U.S. and Canada. Over first two weeks in the U.K., data shows a 2.5X increase in eCPM (combining CPM and CPC earnings) over that time across the board, earning around $.36 eCPM.

The company ranks No. 2 rating among niche ad networks and No. 29 among top ad networks, according to comScore.

WidgetBucks was founded in 2005. Mpire Corporation is WidgetBucks’ parent company. In June, WidgetBucks added $10 million in funding to its bank account, courtesy of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and its original backers. The company said it will use the funds to growing beyond its nearly 1 billion monthly impressions seen by 100 million unique visitors on over 20,000 different blogs and sites.

KickApps says the partnership will enable publishers to build and incorporate interactive widgets into their site, in addition to tracking how users are employing the widgets. Clearspring will promote KickApps’ new WYSIWYG Widget Studio (currently in beta) – a self-service widget-authoring environment – to Clearspring’s booming user base (47.5 million strong in April, according to comScore).

The monetization of social media apps is still considered to be a complex problem, but Michael Chin, senior VP of marketing at KickApps told ADOTAS that the partnership tackles the daunting issues of creepiness, context and relevancy often seen among social apps.

“What has been lacking is context. General social networks and applications lack context and thus have to resort to using methods like behavioral techniques, e.g. cookies, to improve relevancy,” Chin said. “These methods fall short of fulfilling the potential which social media promises, not to mention they’re creepy. Sites using KickApps are always in the context of a given topic or niche. For example, Budget Travel’s social media site is a very prime audience for brands trying to reach travel enthusiasts, as is Popular Mechanics’ social media for motorcycle enthusiasts. We’re also able to take information which people have submitted publicly about themselves, as well as their interactions with media, i.e. commenting on photos and videos, etc., and aggregate to inform more intelligent ad serving, as well as editorial programming, other applications and marketing.”

The audience for widgets is certainly there and more money is being allocated to widget advertising as well – widgets alone are poised to boost social media marketing by 70% to about $1.6 billion this year, according to eMarketer.

“Widgets have proven to be a very effective vehicle for distributing content and marketing messages in a highly viral manner,” said Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps, in a written statement. “As we’ve done with social networking, user-generated content and video players, we’re reducing the barriers to entry for publishers and Madison Ave. to begin monetizing widgets using WidgeADs. Our partnership with Clearspring brings together the core pieces that will define this new market opportunity.”

Clearspring’s advertising solutions are fully integrated with the top ad-serving systems including DoubleClick and Mediaplex. Clearspring also offers a full set of analytics and reporting tools so advertisers can monitor activity as WidgeADs traverse the Web and can manage media placements in response to each widget’s viral performance.

“As a combined offering, advertisers will have an end-to-end solution for creating, deploying, managing and monetizing their widgets,” Chin said. “All of which plug right into their site’s own social graph which is created via KickApps.”

But they’re still not on top – Slide holds that coveted spot. (Slide rang in the New Year with a $50 million infusion). And this new round come amid whisperings online and offline that RockYou is in the throes of the big decision all burgeoning onliners must face: bail out now with a respectable, but relatively minor valuation, or push ahead and hope it can beat out Slide and other up-and-comers (like Meebo and Ning) in the social networking ad game?

While widgets have been installed on zillions of users’ pages, monetizing the space with ads has proved to be an almost Sisyphean task. Also, Facebook is about to unveil a significant redesign, making it harder for applications and widgets to go viral – which could be good or bad news for more established brands (it will definitely stymie the small fries).

Panettiere joins a star-studded board of spokespeople – including Pierce Brosnan, Isabel Lucas and Keely Shaye Smith – created to draw attention to the industrial killing of whales and dolphins.

Some of her wardrobe items on the block: a Dooney & Bourke handbag and an Alice + Olivia pleated black and white dress that she wore to the premiere of It’s a Mall World.

The items can be found here.

Panettiere joined Zude earlier this year to launch Fanbase – a feature that allows Zude users to build fan sites and gives them exclusive access to images, videos and music. Zude users who are members of her Fanbase can visit her home page and click on the Panettiere Closet storefront widget to embed it in their sites.

Shopit marries commerce and social networking; users can build widgets, upload items and list them for sale.