The Widgetization of the Web

While the dot-com era focused squarely on aggregating data on the Internet, one of the most defining characteristics of Web 2.0 is the deconstruction of the Web into small, single-purpose applications called widgets or gadgets.

These small chunks of code can either run on a desktop or be inserted into Web pages. Widgets are gaining popularity among consumers because they allow virtually anyone to easily customize a Web page or social network with news, weather, podcasts, video and other content. Anytime a YouTube video, for example, is added to a non-YouTube page, it becomes a widget.

Several vendors are bringing out a fast-growing list of widgets for users as well as tools for creating proprietary widgets.

Opera Software ASA  this month posted the 1,001st widget on its Web site. The latest widget uses site analytics to create visitor maps that can be posted on blog sites. WeatherBug this month noted that its WeatherBug gadget, which offers live local weather information, was downloaded 200,000 times within hours after it was added to Microsoft Corp.'s Live Gallery  repository of widgets.

Widgetbox Inc.,  meanwhile, in January rolled out a blog widget, or "blidget," to allow blog publishers create a widget version of their blogs.

"The World Wide Web as we know it is exploding," wrote Jit Jaokar last month on his widget blog.  "From its fragments emerges a new 'container-based' Web based on widgets," added Jaokar, author of the book Mobile Web 2.0.   

  
Vendio Services Inc. last month launched Widgipedia,  a central repository for users and developers to create widgets across various platforms, said Rodrigo Sales, Vendio's co-founder and CEO. Widget adoption is being driven by the increasing popularity of social networks where millions of novice users want to customize Web sites, according to Sales. "Widgets have given novices the ability to have robust content and customized functionality within these Web pages without having to become Web developers," he said. "It democratizes the Web."

In addition, Sales said that some developers are creating widgets that can be used to generate revenue. A small portion of ticket sales for a desktop widget that allows users to buy movie tickets without going online goes back to developers, Sales added.

Alex Blum, CEO of KickApps Corp.,  which provides a hosted service for companies and consumers looking to set up social networks, added that some of his clients are finding that custom widgets can drive more traffic to their Web sites than search engines do. "[Users] are likely to become interested in taking a piece of this [Web] experience with them as they go elsewhere on the Web, and they will deposit that," he said.