Further musings on widgets

The discussion about the use and benefit of widgets rages on. Or is that wages? (well it is if you believe the eMarketer article from mback in April Welcome to the widget wars!) Now they come in new & improved media-streaming, rich advertising formats and are seemingly everywhere.

But are widgets really cutting it?

I can't help but think that currently widgets have grabbed more headlines and attention than they should. Half a year ago widgets were the next great thing, but now?

6 months or so ago widgets were even seen as a the saviour of the newspaper industry (probably why they grabbed so many headlines). The big and apparently new idea was that content syndication leads to revenue sharing (and therefore profit?). Even the Tribune, Gannett, Hearst and New York Times Companies teamed up to create a joint venture called quadrantONE. Formed to sell collective ad space and even monetise content via widgets, this collaboration has gone suprisingly quiet recenty. It will surely soon be asked if they really have added value to their parent companies or the customer yet.


So where are the widget success stories?

The future of widgets

Widgets are increasing in use as a communication tool for marketers (but less so for PR)

I saw these 2 different posing articles on BusinessWeek and was reminded of a recent posting about portable content as well as an email conversation I had with a client on the future of web widgets:

Why widgets won't work:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_131531.htm

Widgets, the future of online ads:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_871649.htm


Obviously there's still a debate on their validitity. However some larger companies are trialling different revenue models for their widgets and CBS is entering into an affilliate/revenue sharing deal with bloggers who use theirs:
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9895536-36.html


If you are investigating whether to go invest in widgets or other micro-publishing formats, it may be best to run a small cost-effective trial rather than investing too much at this point. But its worth keeping an eye on those that are pioneering them.

Ways to make content more portable

Distributing your media across the web can be a beneficial way of providing your users and extended target audience with the assets that you want to provide them with (more examples of use and mis-use here)

The immediate and instant delivery of your content and media to numerous people across the web is not the stuff of the future or something so cutting edge that it requries a bespoke multi-million pound Media Distribution System.... it can be achieved easily over time, as part of your corporate site's evolution and just used combinations of several known & standard technologies & practices already out there.

So... what are they?

Content/Media Management System:
Including:categorisation (tagging & meta info), reformatting, versioning, workflow, etc. to manage the content you want to 'push'

Admin function:
This manages the permissions / rights / subscription / personalisation process

Syndication:
RSS is by far the most preferred method of distribution and updating content. Other methods of syndication can be used but RSS is now becoming a common standard for pulling content thanks to podcasts and widget technology gaining widespread usage.

Widgets :
These can be used and are just self-contained HTML components that deliver text and media. There are several standards for these and also some bespoke work may be required to fit it into some frameworks / templates. However, sometimes just the media is sent or referring URL is called.

Hosting:
It is also important that this service has an adaptive hosting facility that that can react to large fluctuations in demand across a potential global footprint, especially if streaming of audio or video is required.