Updated draft W3 Widget Packages Requirements

The W3's work on standardizing desktop widget formats is published:

Widget Packages and User Agents 1.0: Requirements

A widget is an interactive single purpose application for displaying and/or updating local data or data on the Web, packaged in a way to allow a single download and installation on a user's machine or mobile device. A widget may run as a stand-alone application (meaning it can run outside of a Web browser), or may be embedded into a Web document. In this document, the runtime environment in which a widget is run is referred to as a widget user agent and a running widget is referred to as an instantiated widget. Prior to instantiation, a widget exists as a widget resource. For more information about widgets, see the Widget Landscape document.

As argued by the Widget Landscape document, there is currently no formally standardized way to author, package, digitally sign or internationalize a widget resource for distribution and deployment on the Web. In the widget space, although many successful widget user agents are now on the market, widgets built for one widget user agent are generally not able to run on any other widget user agent.

This document lists the design goals and requirements that specifications need to address in order to standardize how widgets are authored/scripted, digitally signed, secured, packaged and deployed in a way that is device independent, follows W3C principles, and is as interoperable as possible with existing market-leading user agents and existing Web browsers.

To be clear, this specification describes the requirements for installable/desktop or mobile widgets (akin to Apple's Dashboard, Opera Widgets, Opera Mobile Widgets. or Yahoo!'s Konfabulator Widgets). This document does not address the requirements of "web widgets", such as iGoogle Gadgets or Windows Live Gadgets, which are being specified by the Open Ajax Alliance's IDE Working Group. Please see the Widget Landscape document for a discussion on the differences between widgets and web widgets.

If a widget had a soul ... the extinction of the widget

Chris Cunningham is a good friend, founder of AppSavvy and a great writer on widgets. Here he is in full flow:

The Evolution Of Social Specific Advertising And The Extinction Of The Widget

Remember that kid you knew in high school, who went away for the summer to someplace foreign, like Europe or Canada or Upper Montclair, and came back so dramatically altered that you didn't even recognize him? Eight pounds of lean muscle, a fresh haircut, clothes from a store that's not in any of your local malls, a couple shades of tan and suddenly he's almost a new person. His DNA is unchanged, of course, but he's been otherwise transformed by the environment he has been in.

The same thing has happened to widgets. The widgets I knew--the ones designed expressly to deliver content or utility in a personal or social environment, the ones whose distribution was driven exclusively by being pulled through the channel by consumers eager to add its utility to their own blog or personal homepage, the ones whose very success or failure was a direct result of how well their creators understood the relationship between brand relevance, audience expectation and social media--have undergone a wholesale metamorphosis.

Now you'll still see thousands of little applications that look very much like widgets. In fact, you'll likely see thousands more than you used to, with a frequency nosed previously only by banners depicting people dancing alongside impossibly low mortgage rates.

Ever opportunistic, the ad networks seized upon what they thought was the single shortcoming throttling widgets' breakneck acceleration: limited and fickle distribution based on viral activity and a need for creative effectiveness. Up sprung "widget advertising networks," one after another, all promising the same benefits previously attributed to widgets being pulled through the channel, but now with exponentially greater distribution and greater frequency visibility. Why wait a week or longer for 50,000 widget installs when a network buy can put the same piece of code in front of millions of people in a single weekend?

The objective was to amplify a widget's reach and bring the power of this breakthrough new format outside of social media and into the rest of the web.

But the result is that a widget is nothing more than a rich media ad with a "grab it" button. It just doesn't work the same. It's like bringing your wife to Cancun. You can do it, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea. Cancun will still be fun, just not for you.

If a widget had a soul, it wouldn't be its code or its technical ability to spread virally. A widget's soul would be in its marriage of design and function within a specific environment. A Socially Specific environment, to be exact. Widgets created for broader distribution across networks need not be so environment specific to succeed. Like armies of zombies in so many movies, they're left to wander the web, soulless.

Perhaps the greatest casualty of this evolution is the confusion it has created within the marketplace. A year ago, a widget marketing strategy WAS a social media strategy. Today it isn't, necessarily. But a widget could still be an important part of a social media strategy, depending on where and how it is distributed, targeted and created. Confused? You're in good company--I have this same conversation in agencies across the country, almost daily.

More TV widgets

Intel to build Yahoo widgets into TV chips

Yahoo is working with microchip maker Intel to create Web computer channels that run alongside TV shows.

The deal will see new TVs incorporating a ‘Widget Channel’, which gives viewers on-screen internet applications that complement TV shows.

Widgets will appear in the corner of a TV screen and work something like a picture-in-picture window of advanced TV sets.

These small windows let viewers chat with or e-mail friends, watch videos, track stocks or sports teams or keep up with news headlines or weather by using a TV remote control.

The Widget Rush to B2B

Lawrence at Sexy Widget spots something going on in the widget world. Well worth going to read the whole thing.

The Widget Rush to B2B

The inflation and pop of the first Internet bubble went something like this:

- Excited about the cost savings of an online store versus a traditional “bricks and mortar” store, a bunch of entrepreneurs built ecommerce sites
- As venture funding poured into the space, entrepreneurs got more specialized (“your online store for ballpoint pens!”)
- As it became apparent that there weren’t enough users or sales to support all these ecommerce sites, those companies who still had resources raced to transform their businesses into B2B – selling / licensing their technology to established companies that could pay real money
- Long sales cycles, a shaky economy, and the tightening of venture purse strings doomed most of these companies
- The bubble burst

Are we seeing a similar cycle in the widget space? Like ecommerce, the promise of widgets (at least from a marketing perspective) has a lot to do with cost benefits over an incumbent system – it’s cheaper to let your users distribute your message than it is to pay for your own distribution. And like the ecommerce example, increasing competition and venture funding is leading to increased specialization.

Widget makers get a makeover | News - Digital Media - CNET News.com

Uh-oh, don't mention the widget
Widget makers get a makeover

Still, social app companies are shifting strategies.

One thing that's quietly changing is the lingo. Turns out the word "widget" just doesn't cut it when you're trying to sell advertising to a big-name marketer or agency. It's also hard to convince venture capitalists hung over from the hype of widgets to invest, so application/widget developers are seeking to recast themselves as bigger players.

That means some companies are stepping away from the word "widget" altogether because it can imply a fleeting, lightweight commodity. Slide, for example, in recent months changed the language on its Web site and stopped trying to explain to advertisers what a widget is, according to the company's director of communications. It now describes the company as a maker of "social entertainment applications."

Snap.com, which is backed by Idealab and the Mayfield Fund, makes what some people might call widgets, which people can customize with photos or video for their blog. Tom McGovern, CEO of the company, calls Snap a maker of "personal media applications" and would prefer to say that it offers a Web service. He said that roughly 2 million publishers have installed its application on more than 10 million Web sites.

"For the non-Web-savvy, a widget company invokes negative images of a commodity product," McGovern said.

Desktop offers widget from Nooked

Nooked, ecommerce widget specialists, have rolled out the desktop offers widget.

Widgets on yer Telly

JUST ANNOUNCED: Intel & Yahoo Team Up for “TV Widget” System

ntel and Yahoo have just announced plans to create an interactive, Internet-based widget system for the TV.

The Widget Channel will use Intel’s new Media Processor CE 3100 along with Yahoo’s Widget Engine to bring Web content to a television platform. The technology will essentially deliver a degree of Web 2.0-type service to the TV, letting you interact with content and share information with friends. It’ll also offer news headlines, photo access, and video-on-demand-style services.

What are Web Widgets?

Taking a look at a startup that Google just bought, Omnisio. I found this great introduction to What are Web Widgets?

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Nooked roll out instant shopping widget

Nooked have gone live with an instant 'shopping widget' that lets you choose the products your want to sell, widgetize them and put them on your site - and earn money!

Nooked Share your favourite best deals with friends. It's free and its an easy way to earn money.

Choose your favourite products

With product offers to select from all the top retailers, it will delight you and your readers

Design your own shopping widget in 1 minute

Learn from our reporting metrics which products are popular with your friends

Sit back and earn money

Start earning with nooked from doing stuff you love

WidgetWebExpo London call for speakers

I'm now working hard on the next WidgetWebExpo, which takes place in London on October 9 & 10th this year. We'll have a great range of speakers and panels for you as usual. The call for speakers is open now and I encourage you to submit soon if you have something to add to the conversation. You can fill out the form here.
These are my ideas for subjects, but I'm keen to hear yours:

Widget tools

Widget marketing:

Media

Large companys using widgets:

Is there money in widgets:

Enterprise use of widgets:

Non-profit widgets:

Widgetized Intranets:

Platforms:

Social networks and widgets:

Affiliate networks in widgets:

SEO in widgets:

Widget Metrics and Analytics:

Case studies:

Tools and platforms

Licencing widget content:

Open standards for widgets:

Opensocial:

Dataportability:

Friend Connect:

Location

New Connaught Rooms

61 – 65 Great Queen Street • Covent Garden,
London WC2B 5DA