The first websites talked of stickiness. They wanted users to spend hours. Some succeeded, but most did not. Today, the smart websites don’t want users to come to their sites. They prefer users to pull their content on their blogs, social network spaces or their personal web pages.
The result: the web has become much more webbed. This has happened thanks to a simple tool called widget. Two years ago few net users talked about widgets. Today, a majority of them have widgets on their blogs and personal pages.
So, what is a widget and why is it getting more and more popular? A widget is a short piece of code that can be embedded into any HTML page on the net. Once embedded, the widget pulls in fresh content published on the parent website, and displays it on the third party web page.
The user need not visit the parent website any more. Yet, the user can stay informed of all the latest postings because they constantly get displayed on the user’s website or blog. The user can now build his own website without having any content of his own.
Smart users can pull business news from different sources and build a business website; similarly, gaming enthusiasts can embed scores of game widgets to create a super gaming website. You can even build a multimedia website by embedding widgets that pull free videos from different multimedia sites.
The best is that you don’t have to be a techie to make use of widgets. Most Web 2.0 applications provide a range of widgets that you can embed. For instance, you can choose the widget to embed in your WordPress or Blogspot blog by simply clicking on a checkbox. You can do the same on Facebook, MySpace or iGoogle. If you are not happy with the content then you can just uncheck. The widget will stop working.
It is not that widgets were not available earlier. But the first widgets were desktop widgets. You could download a Cricinfo widget on your desktop and the latest scores would keep popping on your screen. Similarly, you could install a breaking news widget on your desktop and keep abreast of latest news breaks.
However, you could use these widgets only from the desktop or laptop where you downloaded the code. Today’s widgets are embedded on your personal web space on the net. This means that you, your friends or your target audience can access them from anywhere in the world.
The smart netizens have even set up widget galleries so that you don’t have to hunt for suitable widgets. You can select the widget based on the theme you have in mind and embed it in your web space. Two trustworthy places to find widgets are NetVibes and iGoogle.
There is little doubt that widgets are a great leap forward for content creators too. They now have a vehicle that can allow their content to spread virally across the net. What matters is the quality of the content.
For instance, it did not take users long to locate and embed the code that the Times of India Group provided for its catchy Lead India campaign whose theme song was ‘Tum Chalo to Hindustan Chale”. This video was spread by the net users, not by the media house, thanks to the little piece of code or widget that came with it.
So, if you have an idea, you can use the widget to spread it.
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