The Widgets are coming, the widgets are coming!
Widgets are growing in popularity and everyone is talking about them, but what are they and how can your business benefit?
What are they?
Widgets pull content or services from some other place on the Web, and put it into a users personal page, it is a mechanism for portable content, commerce, community and transactions. This allows users to save time by receiving their favorite content, information, and services directly on their social networking pages and desktops. Think of it like a mini web site but with only the content they are interested in.
Widgets can be categorized as Web widgets, Desktop widgets and Mobile widgets because they can be embedded in a web page, desktop background, or a mobile phone.
Why should I care?
According to comScore, in November 2007, nearly 148 million U.S. Internet users viewed widgets, representing 81 percent of the total audience. MySpace.com widgets had the widest audience, reaching more than 57 million Internet users, while Slide.com ranked second with 39.2 million viewers. Google.com has the sixth widest widget-viewing audience with more than 19 million viewers. And it’s growing.
Businesses are viewing widgets less as frivolous gadgets, and more as business tools to boost traffic, ad revenue and sales on their sites.
How can I use widgets?
Think about what you want to accomplish, is it branding, is conversion or commerce? Now think about your website and what actions you want your users to do and how to lead them down that path. Do you have new content they may be interested in or sale items that they can buy from your site? If you do, then you can use that content to put in a widget.
Rebecca
Tags: Widgets
