Birth of a Widgetvangelist

Rob 'fesses up to being a widgetvangelist. I guess I am one too. There are a few of us about, but now we've been named and shamed. So what should he do with the domain?

I am a Widgetvangelist

I didn’t mean to be.  But I can’t help myself. More and more often I find myself talking to startups and I hear myself selling them on Widgets.  Widgets are a great way to “get viral”.  A widget can display your service/site/product in front of more eyes than anything else on the web that you can buy right now. I’m really hard pressed to find a business that can’t benefit from creating a widget - if you are building something social, it’s hard to beat a widget.  Widgets are relatively cheap - basically you write a small amount of code that re-packages some existing code (functionality) from your web site.  And others can display that section or your site on many other sites.  It sounds too simple to be true.  It isn’t though - at least not yet - not until the space is so crowded that there just isn’t room for yet another widget.  We are a LONG way from that, I think. I’ve had three conversations with social startups this week - and in each case one of the things I recommended is that they develop a widget.  Why?  Widgets are an extension of your web site - a way to put part of your site on MANY sites.  For very little incremental cost.  There are tens of millions of blogs - giving blogger’s a widget is like taking candy from a baby.  It costs you very little, and it adds value to the blogger’s site.  Win-win.

Comments

[Ty Graham]

I fundamentally believe that a widget must have a purpose that solves something that was not able to do without that widget. Most widgets today are a rehash of something else, even the common flash video widget. Real could of been Youtube way back when real was all SMIL and no UG, still they had great interface ideas that were ahead of their time.

You are spot-on with this post, however, in a world where everyone is craving for attention and retention of media it's easy for widgets to loose their attraction and usefulness when pages are overcrowded with widgets. The Widgetsphere must be a real tangible space that all widgets can roam free to any space through structured channels. I haven't seen anyone get this right yet, so I am in agreement there's a long road ahead to widgetopia. Anyone smart enough to recognize the value of widgets can look past the design implementations of ZenZui and focus on the purpose of why Microsoft recognizes widget management as an emerging industry that is building momentum and value. Two main factors will explode the widget market (1) A widget browser (2) marriage of site content to widget. Neither exists today but, soon, everyone is going to get blipd!

[Rob La Gesse]

I actaully had a couple different thoughts on the domain. One was to build a Social Networking site for Widgetvangelists - maybe a team blog on what's new in the widget world, etc.

Do a lot of focused reviews of widget makers, ner widgets, where the widget market is going, etc.

The other thought was more of a "download.com" type of repository for all things widget.

I'm really not sure what to do with it, and I am certainly open to suggestions, and also open to working with a few other people, and/or the widget community to build whatever the community thinks should be built :)

Rob