... now read the mag

The MillionDollarAvatar Blog - get hits or die tryin'

I don't really know where this is going, but we're on the The MillionDollarAvatar Blog - get hits or die tryin'  '20 random links' blog page today. Go figure!

Measure Map

Anyone remember the widget based analytics application, Measure Map? It was bought by Google a year ago last week - and disappeared off the face of the earth. I'm sure something interesting is going on - but it is sad to see a funky product like this spend a year missing from the face of the earth. Of course, when it was bought people wondered what Google wanted it for, considering they had bought Urchin Analytics and converted it to Google Analytics.

Widgets are the battering ram for social networking sandcastles

Ross Mayfield says Widgets are the battering ram for social networking sandcastles

But the next YouTube wont be video, and stuff comes from all angles when users are empowered to paste Javascript.  Smaller players will make this even easier, with wizards to add widgets.  And the blogosphere from which all this independently froths will keep driving the widget economy.

This is the walled garden under siege by gophers.  No, not those gophers, but the ones that tunnel in a thousand directions and drive Bill Murray nuts. People will discover new services wherever the traffic and time is. Some services may overlay social networking as a service, like MyBlogLog does with a degree of execution. Attention follows. Value shifts to networks that provide both the right attention, openness and composition. My bet is a derivative of blogs.

Widgets are the explosive charges laid under the walled gardens. We are the sappers, tunnelling under their ramparts in the dead of night. They lower listening devices, trying to track our activities, but they know that sooner or later their ramparts will be breached. We will rush in. And we will break the walls down and carry the stones away to build our houses.  (Phew, metaphor overload alert)

I don't think the shift will be to a derivative of blogs, or to any 'network' that is recognisable - but logically the outcome will be to an array of open platforms that are networked together by way of widgets. We will choose the platform that fits with what we want to do. The key factor will be that the platforms that work will facilitate our use of widgets rather than control our use of widgets as they do now.

Platforms such as Netvibes and Yourminis hint at what may be to come, though these first generation spaces are totally controlling in what they will admit. They understand that they have to push stuff out as well - but they don't yet understand that they have to let stuff in. This will come soon.

[Thanks to Marc Canter for the Ross Mayfield link and for link love. He's right on the button too. As soon as I find out how to embed Snipperoo into PeopleAggregator I'll be bigging it up!]

Snipperoo Users

I'd love to write about every Snipperoo user - a growing band.
Conor's Bandon Blog is a convert, having had the usual problems working out how to get started. Once our amazing support system had intervened, he's become fully widgetised. Oh, and go vote for him in the Irish Blog Awards.
Tell me you're using Snipperoo and I'll give you a shout out.

StickiWidgets

Just found this widget blog: StickiWidgets.

Another widget list

Talking of lists: 6 nice widgets websites.

Advertising in the WWW (Wide World of Widgets)

David Beisel is a Genuine VC who writes a great blog of the same name. He's also a widget fan, and he's been talking to everyone. Well, nearly everyone. David, you can talk to me, you know. I am Mr Widget. Good piece though.

Advertising in the WWW (Wide World of Widgets)

When there’s an article on something in the New York Times, as there was last week on widgets – you know the concept has gone mainstream. I’ve been spending a lot of time recently reading blogs about, thinking about, and most importantly, meeting with entrepreneurs creating endeavors which leverage the ramifications of an increasingly decentralized widgetized web. And the primary focus has been on advertising. How will advertisers play in a world in which widgetized microchunked content proliferates?

Your own domain on Blogger

I really like Blogger.com blogging platform - largely because it is a) free, b) simple to use and c) allows widgets. It's a good place to point new Snipperoo users. Now Inside Google reports, Blogger Lets You Use Your Own Domain

Blogger added a new feature: Bring your own domain. All you have to do is buy a domain, anywhere, at any price you can find, set up your Blogger account and point your DNS at Google’s server at ghs.google.com, and viola*! Now your Blogger blog appears at its own domain name, and all you had to do was pay less than ten bucks a year for the domain. You don’t need hosting, because Blogger handles all the traffic, you just bring the domain.

I’m really pleased with what the Blogger team has done. They’ve turned around a product that seemed like it was dead-ending, reviving the server architecture, inspiring confidence, and adding features that users have begged for for years. I didn’t think they had it in them, and users of Blogger should be feeling a whole lot better with every announcement.

If only they'd implement a decent API that allowed remote embedding of widgets in sidebars we'd be made up!

Be afraid, be very afraid

Don Synstelien from SpringWidgets blogs at  Cleaning Up My Life:

Widgets can obviously be built by the site owner to extend a business. They can also be built by a third party trying to make a buck by cleverly extending someone else's business. With widgets, imagination is the only limitation to what can be created if you have free reign and content to share.

Most widgets that you will find are likely going to be parasites, built to siphon traffic from a much larger host, like MySpace or Blogger. These web based parasites, similar to parasites in life, can be good or bad for you, assisting you in useful ways like the bacteria that help you digest your food or feeding off you at your expense like the flu or e-coli.

It's interesting that in nature, almost all living creatures need parasites present in order to be healthy. What is more interesting is that the arrival of "web 2.0" has caused websites to become living, breathing beings that are beginning to emulate life in almost every way, including the support for symbiotic systems of parasites and viral pathways. Trying to remove or hinder viral web content or "parasites" on the web will likely result in the same kind of reaction that treating viruses and parasites in real life does, occasionally killing or injuring the host during the process of treatment.

Personally, I'd like to think that this evolution of the web is a good thing and that widgets are the best example of how we interact with the new web. Mainly because they allow users to take what they want, put it where they want and customize individual web experiences in ways that might just make the old web portals just a bit afraid of what's coming next.

FREE Blogging Platform with Widgets

Terapad is a great blogging platform. And not just a blogging platform - it offers a bunch more value, such as shops, forums, web pages - everything you could want. It also allows you to add all sorts of things in and to totally redesign your whole site if you wish. And you can add Snipperoo easily to your site.  Here's our test site.
The best news today - it's now completely FREE. Well, it does carry advertising, but it's the most powerful free platform I've come across. 

Five Things

You Don't Know About Me
Bloggers 'fess up to five things with the tag line 'not a lot of people know that'.
Tagged by Manoj to continue the meme, here are my five:

1. I was absent without leave from the French army for seven years
2. My first business venture was a punk fanzine in 1977
3. I invented the term and concept Cybercafe
4. My mother was born in China and my father in South Africa
5. I was at art college with Damien Hirst

Cheers and a Happy New Year

Scoble gets Widget religion

Robert Scoble clicks with widgets. We're going to see a lot of action in the coming year.  Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger.

But there is something in the air. Spending a few hours at Google got me excited again. I’m playing with a Blogger blog just to play around away from public view.

I am playing with JavaScript and all the latest gadgets and gidgets and widgets and code (Mark Lucovsky hates calling them anything but code, by the way, cause he says looking at it any other way starts to limit your thinking. He pointed out that most gadgets on blogs are rectangular. He asked me “why do they need to do that?” Then he showed me lots of examples where code sprayed results into the page in a totally non-rectangular way. And the stuff he demoed on maps is cool. I’ll get that video up for Christmas so we can all spend Christmas break copying JavaScripts from each other and playing around.

Joho the Blog

Line of the week from Joho the Blog.

I'm at the Reykjavik airport, waiting for the flight to Paris for Le Web (formerly Le Blog, and before that Le Usenet and, originally, Le Cuneiform).

Small is the new big (widgetisation)

Dany Taylor blogs widgets at the fabric of folly
He offers six reasons why widgets are suddenly looking interesting - we like the sixth:

6.) Small is the new big

A more fundamental reason why widgets are starting to take off is the broader shift towards smaller, more rapidly developed applications and increasing hybridisation by means of mash-ups and APIs. One only need compare the protracted product development cycle of Microsoft Office (gap between releases: 4 years) with the iterative development of Google Docs and Spreadsheets to see where things are headed. Widgets fit perfectly into this new landscape of smaller, simpler, connected apps.

SplashCast - Social Media Syndication

Hey, SplashCast have a great blog and it's even better when they quote me. Looking forward to their launch.

People Want Stuff For Their Sites or Hey Baby What’s Your Widget?

Some quotes from Ivan Pope of Snipperoo, who just spoke at Widgets Live on the topic of widgets aggregators.

“We encourage a million widget world”

“Keep your hands off my widgets”

“Online ads and affiliate marketing will spawn widget marketing”

“You will put your blog in your stuff not your stuf in your blog.”

“Sites will be constructed entirely of widgets.”

And this from BamBam of the AOL team:

“Hey, baby, what’s your widget?”

Wrap-Up from Widgets Live

From Liz Gannes on  GigaOM : Wrap-Up from Widgets Live.

Ivan Pope, Snipperoo (this guy was full of catchy quotes that seemed just a tiny bit beyond our grasp): “Widgets are the bumper stickers of the internet.” Fittingly, this came as a bumper sticker. And a t-shirt.

The cutest bumpersticker

From Stephanie Bambam here

They Bring You the Widgets..

          

Ed Anuff from Widgetbox started off this panel by giving a demo of their site, which is a very slick directory of various widgets that work in different places. The more places their widgets work the better, of course, and the intent is to have them working all ovver.

Next up was Snipperoo, who I have to admit, I'd never heard of before, although they did leave the cutest bumpersticker on my chair with the phrase "widgets are the bumper stickers of the Internet." They're rather quotable - one line from the demo - "You will put your blog in your stuff, not your stuff in your blog." They're all about "universal widgets" - widgets that work anywhere. More than just a directory, unique widgets you can use on any site.

Off to Q&A - do we really need a widget aggregator? Widgetbox's position is - yes. Publishing platforms have other things to do than categorize widgets, they need to come up with the best publishing experience and maximize business value. Aggregators are a handy dandy way to find things. Widgets are about independence, things that can be yanked from one place and brought to another, and an independent aggregator simply makes sense.

The Widget Widget Web

Ajit Jaokar at the Mobile Web 2.0 Blog:

The World Wide Web, as we know it, is exploding. From its fragments emerges a new "container-based" Web based on Widgets. For the lack of a better term, I shall call it a "Widget Widget Web."

I have long advocated the power of Widgets to transform the Web as we know it. Hence, I am starting a new set of blogs on the future potential and evolution of Widgets.

Modularization of software and applications is not new. The idea is simply "moving up the software stack."

And now, we in the Web 2.0 era, are talking of Widgets at a user interface/browser/business level.

The simultaneous of evolution of widgets, AJAX and other technologies is no accident since they are all feeding off each other to create a powerful new ecosystem.

Thus, the Widget Widget Web series of blogs are going to look at Widgets 2.0 (I hate sticking 2.0 after everything - but it does convey the point I am trying to make i.e. we are talking about how widgets will evolve)

Let me throw up a few ideas, both existing and forthcoming. Please feel encouraged to comment on these:

• a) Widgets are currently performing a single specific task
• b) Like RSS, they are sending out information from the parent site and enabling the recipients to use that information in their own sites (for example: the use of YouTube videos in MySpace)
• c) Widgets have widespread support from Operating system vendors and browser vendors
• d) Widgets have support from major web services/sites like MySpace and YouTube
• e) A cottage industry is emerging in the creation of Widgets and new Widget authoring tools are becoming mainstream
• f) Other applications like Salesforce.com are adopting widgets

What else? My favorites are:

1. Widgets on the Mobile Web which I have already talked about before
2. Widgets calling Widgets (hence leading to whole applications based on widgets - not just small functional applications)

I welcome any information about interesting work you are doing in this space (especially developments based on web technologies) and I shall include it in this series of blogs if possibleThus, I have only a broad vision about the evolution of widgets (probably a bit biased towards the mobile web) and user feedback will drive the Widget Widget Web series of blogs

Comng up widgets

Om Malik put his finger on the pulse for Business 2.0 with Suddenly everything's coming up widgets

Suddenly everything's coming up widgets Breaking down the Web into small, portable pieces is the smart trend that everyone from Nokia to Google is betting on.

Widgets are Dead; Long Live Widgets

Oren Michels, ceo of Praxis, writes Widgets are Dead; Long Live Widgets

Yesterday brought us an interesting post from Dead 2.0 (I love the tagline - "Anti-Hyping Web 2.0 since 2006!") that looks at the "widget market" and basically concludes that there is no such thing. Mashery is mentioned as a recently funded "widget outsourcing service", a characterization first put forth by Om Malik in a Business 2.0 article.

Both of them quote me as saying the "business models around widgets are still emerging", which to me is stating the obvious. Understating, even.

I agree with the skeptic that counting on someone like myspace to allow you to make money distributing your widget on their service is more than a little risky. He is spot on in saying " I do dispute whether companies that are focused on “producing” widgets should be companies at all."

Widgets are certainly being hyped, and like most such beneficiaries/victims of hype, the value gets lost amid the noise. A widget is a means of offering a web service in a package that is easier to integrate on a web page. A new name and new hype for something that has been around for awhile, whether in the form of a traffic counter, a photostream, or a product listing from some affiliate marketing program.

Badges 2.0

ThisNext's Gordon Gould on badges:

Right now, most badges/widgets/flying seeds on the Net are really just micro display surfaces. Typically, you can click thru to a page on the badge-parent site and do whatever you want to do there (ie look at a photo, buy a book, etc)

ThisNext's current pre-canned badges fall into this category (hey, we only launched last week). Soon, however, our canned badges will evolve to enable recommendations and shopcasting of items found in the badge itself.

But where do we go from there? What about exploding badges so that they no longer simply reflect/make actionable the current already-badged items? For example, how does a badge become an extension of the bookmarklet or shopping cart? Can the badge recruit new content creators, not just consumers? Can more dynamic badges go truly mainstream/cross the chasm?

We think so at ThisNext. But leaping over the chasm means making Badges 2.0 easily grokked and fun to interact w/by the average user.

This is no small feat. The potential to confuse the hell out of the regular user w/an over-wrought badge is a real concern. Badges are already a big leap for the average user. I am sure that all us Web 2.0 companies can figure out ways to truly baffle the mainstream w/our badges which is good for no one.

So how do we achieve Badge 2.0 nirvana?

Is there any money in it?

Performancing asks Where is the Widget Wonga?

All this talk about "widgets" is well and good, but there are a few holes in the theory that widgets are the next big thing despite the excitement buzzing round yet another old technology given new life by web2.0 -- Next big gimmick may be closer to the truth.

Where's the money?
Though Om Malik points out that business models are still emerging (web2.0 translation: "we dont have a clue, but it's cool ok?"), to me at least, it seems a tough area to monetize. You have the "free mindset" to contend with for starters, then you have privacy and commercialism concerns if you try doing something obvious like inserting affiliate links in your widgets.

Really, where is the wonga in widgets?

Zenrob

Rob Tsai (Zenrob) did a great piece called Disaggregating the MySpace juggernaut one widget at a time.

WALLED / OPEN GARDENS

MySpace’s strength and weakness lies in how it straddles the fence between being a walled garden and an open garden.   When MySpace allows 3rd party widgets to propagate on its site (as described in this interesting case study from conversionrater.com), it’s espousing an open garden strategy, and when it cracks down on those very same widgets, it’s displaying a walled garden strategy.   The walled garden approach can be as simple as disabling certain types of flash widgets (see Pete Cashmore's Mashable blog), or it can be manifested in cease and desist letters issued by lawyers. 

It’s still not clear how open MySpace wants to be with its user community.  My impression is that on the user side – most would prefer an open versus closed garden.  MySpace is probably more conflicted – wanting to maintain a relatively open stance (to keep its users happy), but at the same time wanting to close (or control) the walls to keep a virtual monopoly on revenue-generating widgets.   For example, I wonder what MySpace’s response would be to users deciding to implement 3rd party search widgets on their profile from Yahoo or Ask, in light of their exclusive $900 million deal with Google.  My guess is not too happy.

Rob goes on to look at the various constituent parts of MySpace, and whether or not those parts could be replicated outside MySpace with widgets. Great reading.

Flying Seeds

Timothy over at Flying Seeds has been busy theorising the future of social badges. And not only theorising them - now he wants to join startupland! Come on in, Tim, the water's fine.

This is the very beginning of a new era in one area of the Internet. I believe we will look back in 5 years and marvel at how we used the Internet without social web badges. Our kids will look at our old frequent flyer cards and chuckle.

or

So, every web service, organization, club, membership, fan club, brandname affiliation, etc which you will have in the future will have its own URI (sub domain) on your own blog or website (your own URI). The interface for each of these entities will be badges and widgets.

Adding widgets to a blog in 47 seconds

Techcrunch, as usual, breaks the news that Blogger.com is changing radically, including what is most interesting to us - they are adding a drag and drop capability:

Drag and drop layout. That’s downright innovative, both building your blog’s template and changing the position of elements later will be possible with a drag and drop interface. That’s the kind of thing that could help Blogger reclaim its position as the preeminent hosted system in terms of usability. The default template options are also more varied.

The drag and drop page gives you the option of adding an element, including 3rd party javascript. Very nice, but still not as easy to use as Typepad’s widget menu.

So hey, the site is at beta.blogger.com and it's open for signups. I wanted to test how quick it would be to add a Snipperoo widget panel.

After opening a new blog called Widgetopia. I found the drag and drop page layout edit area (10 sec)

Clicked the 'Add a Page Element' link in the right column (2 sec)

Chose the Javascript/HTML option from the list (3 sec)

Then I went to my Snipperoo account and created a new widget Panel. I guessed 300 x 250 as I had no idea what size space I was going to be putting this in. (15 sec)

I put a couple of existing widgets into the new panel (7 sec)

I copied the javascript code for the panel and pasted it into the Blogger element (10 sec)

Saved it and hey presto, my widgets popped up in my new blog. OK, they are a bit wonky, but nothing that can't be fixed in a minute or so.

47 seconds to add widgets to a new blog.

(Next, how to do this with Typepad)

 

Widget bloggers

There are some new bloggers in the Widgetsphere - it's worth keeping an eye on what these guys are writing:

Timothy Post writes Flying Seeds

Javascript, Flash, and HTML badges & widgets are the flying seeds of the internet and javascript bookmarklets are the pollinating agents creating those seeds.

I call this space "social scripting."
Social scripting has many manifestations (photo, audio, video sharing, bookmarking, shopping, scrapbooking, blog widgets) but is still seeking a viable business model (affiliate marketing, sponsorship, advertsing, bounties).

Brian Phipps on widgets, gadgets and brands

If you work in brands, you have to be excited about the brand potential of widgets and gadgets. These are the live, highly visual icons that reside on your desktop and do important things for you. They are quick to access, and persistent. They are little friends, always there when you need them.

Rogelio Choy on Widgets and Postapp Widgetbox

Here's a bold (not) prediction. The day of the widget is here... Hide the children. Lazy college economics professors will no longer be able to talk about 'widgets' and their marginal cost without a knowing chuckle from the back of the class. Widgets (whether AJAX or Flash-based) are fast becoming mainstream.

If you know of any others I'd love to hear about them.

 

About a Blog

Publishing 2.0 reports on a Pew Internet research report. Scott puts it as 3 million bloggers looking to make money, which is fair enough, that's what the report says in passing. But as the chart shows, it really shows that most bloggers do it for other reasons.

3 Million Bloggers Looking to Make Money

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results from a blogger survey today, which detailed the reasons why bloggers blog. The report focuses on some notion of storytelling vs. journalism (whatever), but what jumped out at me was that 7% of bloggers said that making money is a major reason why they blog.