My latest column at Inc Technology is up. Today’s column is about the explosion of widgets.
No, I’m not talking about those fictional products typically mentioned in sample business plans.
Widgets in this context refers to a way to display updated content from one site on another website, usually through a small display box:
Widgets — you see them everywhere, those little branded badges or boxes on websites and blogs that display content from another site. Web widgets have exploded in popularity in 2006 and 2007. It seems like they are reproducing faster than rabbits — and for good reason. Widgets give business website owners and bloggers a quick and inexpensive — usually free — way to add interactivity and interesting content to a site.
Many thanks to Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com and Shara Karasic of Work.com. Ramon and Shara both served as my “experts” in this article to point out the benefits of widgets and why you should consider using them as part of your own Web content strategy.
Go read: The Year of the Web Widget.
Hi Chris,
Actually I have two widgets currently here on this site. One is on the left side column, the yellow box with the little photos in it, for MyBlogLog.
And if you go into the Small Biz Experts tab, you will see a widget for my radio show on the left column. It shows the most recent posts from the show’s blog.
I’d be interested to hear from other readers.
Do you use widgets? Which widgets do you like?
Best,
Anita
Widgets are amazing but like RSS I think there is a learning curve that has seperated them from the main stream market. If a new mindset comes about where people and small businesses in general understand and easily grasp the benefits of using widgets or providing them on their websites for others to utilize we will see a an overwhelming evolution in the kind of widgets provided, the numbers of them in use, and the inteligence of their practicality. I’m hoping to see a useful implimentation of widgets on our website – Ekaweekawhich is a small business community. Imagine the possibilities!
I have been seeing a lot of talk about this recently and am having trouble understanding the concept a bit. But it does seem like it’s opening doors.