World-Wide-Widgets

The connection power of the tiny widget applications are taking marketers by storm.

Widgets. They are not the fictitious products people imagine while talking about business possibilities. They have actually become something real. Widgets are tiny Web applications that are used to capture Internet users most specific needs, from weather updates to the latest Hollywood gossip.

There are two kinds of widgets: Web and desktop. A Web widget is simply code taken from a marketer and pasted into a user’s blog or Web 2.0 pages. Web widgets such as photo slideshows and music are commonly used in popular sites like MySpace and Facebook. A desktop widget allows an Internet user to download a widget from a widget creators’ web site or a widget aggregator site such as Yahoo Widgets or Google Desktop Gadgets. The widget then sits on the users desktop, and in most cases can be hidden, to update the user of the information they want.

So why would anyone want a widget? Some companies, like Due Maternity offer users incentives for downloading their widget. Due Maternity created a widget for the parent-to-be with a countdown clock to the due date of the baby and links back to the site for coupons, special offers, products and information. Due Maternity also offered customers a 10 percent discount on select products just for downloading the widget during the first 45 days of the widget release.

Other widgets have a way of creating a buzz around products, services and even people. For example, MySpace, one of the top social networks on the Web, is known for its users sharing artist and music preferences with other users. Users hear a song they like and put it on their profile. The way users do this? Through Web widgets. Popular artists such as Colbie Calliat and Sean Kingston have been discovered through having their songs on MySpace and available to other users.

Do widgets really work? They seemed to work for Due Maternity and artists Colbie Calliat and Sean Kingston. During the first 45 days of the Due Maternity widget launch, about 10,000 widgets were downloaded and sales produced directly from the widget were $7,500, quite the return for a $600 investment. Colbie Calliat and Sean Kingston have had their recent hits rank in the top ten on the Billboard charts.