Widgets As a Marketing Tool
We couldn’t help but point to Om Malik’s article on widgets and their growing use as a marketing tool. They’re the perfect vehicle for packaging a branded experience. Widgets, also known as gadgets, are single-function programs that exist on the user desktop or on websites and pull data from online sources. The more common applications are to keep tabs on sports scores, daily headlines, and monitor blog updates. Google, Yahoo!, and the underdog web browser Opera have all embraced widgets as as way to stay connected to users and vice versa. While new in the Windows arena, the Mac communinty has enjoyed these little programs for quite some time now. The mobile platform has even gotten into the act with Nokia Labs spawning Widsets, a fantastic library of widgets designed to pull content to your cell phone.