A few years ago, before we came into this broadband explosion, I was really interested in desktop applications. The idea that you could download some kind of application and have it live on your desktop independently of the browser sounded like a great idea. As long as you had a connection, you could consume or experience content in that environment.  It could be branded and have a unique function. Well now these desktop applications have really arrived, in the form of widgets (some say its Web plus Gadget).

First popularized on a german site, Konfabulator , now bought by Yahoo, and also with Apple’s new OS (dashboard), they are available everywhere.

These range from functionality…a weather widget, a mapping widget, even a sudoko widget.  And marketers are jumping in…. example, there is a Harry Porter branded clock widget,  a Mom’s Club Weekly Poll widget and more philanthropic, Donor’s Choose, who sponsors a widget to help raise funds for schools through bloggers.

Commerce opportunities abound. Amazon widgets, ‘air compare’-find the best price for tickets, a WOOT widget (highly discounted items) and the opportunity to brand them.

There are some that offer functionality within some of the  newer web solutions; Sixpart has widgets that they call “bling for your blog”. 

Think of these as great give aways for opting in or another way to extend your brands benefits by offering a helpful solution to an everyday task.  They can be downloaded off of webpages or even banner advertisements

And they can be fun too….games, niche themed content ( find discount shoes), you name it, there’s a widget to be born

Here is a good list of where to find them:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/

http://www.widgetgallery.com/

http://www.squidoo.com/widgetfinder/

Related posts:

1. Branded Widgets on U.K. Social Networking Site
2. A few of my favorite things – DOOH 2008
3. Joost opens up to 3rd Party Widgets
4. The Medium is the Audience
5. Would you want to be stuck on a plane next to your favorite blogger?

One Response to “Today’s favorite toy”

1. Brad Suter Says:
   June 6th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

   Windows Vista will also ship with ‘gadgets’, which is Microsoft’s version of the same. Expect to see alot more of these as .NET developers get in on the fun.

   See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/sidebar.mspx

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