More on the topic of widgets...ComScore has announced Widget Metrix, a new service to track the usage of widgets on web sites and blogs.
Now you ask yourself....
What is a widgets? and How might my brand use one?
A widget is a mini application that either sits on your desktop, in your dashboard or in an HTML web page. At it heart a widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation.
They are akin to plugins or extensions in desktop applications. Other
terms used to describe a web widget include gadget, badge, module,
capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Web widgets often but not always use Adobe Flash or JavaScript programming languages.
I have several examples of widgets on this blog. You can find widgets on TypePad and other web services things like Lijit (search), MyBlogLog (readers photos), Feedburner (subscriptions) and
Twitter(REALLY ON:).
Other examples are things like stock tickers, news feeds,
and of course, Google's AdSense widget which delivers ads to web sites
and blogs. See my earlier post on widgets for more background on widgets.
The Wall Street Journal has a story on the widget economy and produced this graphic of the ComScore results. I am surprised by the initial measurement results. I would have
guessed Photobucket to be the most used widget given its enormous usage
on MySpace. Other surprises...YouTube doesn't show up in the top 10 but
Brightcove does? Congrats to Jeremy Allaire from Brightcove
registering 16.9 million unique visitors. Quite Impressive!
I suspect (because i am suspicious of a metric that does not take in to account all widgets..especially the ones that have been around the longest) that the stats are incomplete because ComScore only
tracks flash based widgets.
See this definition of widgets from
ComScore.
The
current universe of widgets is defined as embedded flash (.swf)
objects. The comScore Widget Metrix service will evolve in its tracking
of widget file types as the market dynamics and content delivery
systems change. The report currently focuses on the individual
widgets, and not the platforms that deliver them. Desktop widgets are
also not included.
Widgets
are growing in popularity. Companies like Clearspring (Clearspring, a widget distribution company, just signed a big deal to be the exclusive widget platform for NBC.) have figured out
how to deliver a widget platforms that leave the control of the content and
monetization in the hands of the content owners, but still allow consumers
to freely use the widget anywhere they want.
It is WOM growth while still
maintaining a little control.
As a counterpoint to the ComScore Widget Metrix, you should take a loot at the Lijit Widget Statistics for June:
http://www.lijit.com/node/370
We track javascript and flash widgets, thus showing the huge popularity of MyBlogLog and tracking widgets. We also see that YouTube is a near monopoly on blogs, making me more confused about Comscore’s data.
(And hey, where is the Lijit wijit on your blog? We just released a lot of cool new stuff for it!)
-Stan
Founder & CTO
Lijit Networks
As a counterpoint to the ComScore Widget Metrix, you should take a loot at the Lijit Widget Statistics for June:
http://www.lijit.com/node/370
We track javascript and flash widgets, thus showing the huge popularity of MyBlogLog and tracking widgets. We also see that YouTube is a near monopoly on blogs, making me more confused about Comscore’s data.
(And hey, where is the Lijit wijit on your blog? We just released a lot of cool new stuff for it!)
-Stan
Founder & CTO
Lijit Networks