Storytelling the Widget Way

THIS post comes from guest blogger Jared Novack, graphics developer for chron.com and endofprint.com mastermind.

"If you search through Google or Apple's widget library you'll find plenty of widgets from news organizations. But like much from established news organizations on the web, the product doesn't quite match with user's needs.

Let's take the RSS widget that lots of news orgs put out. What's the reason to use RSS in the first place? Aggregation. On my Google Reader I can pull in 100 different feeds. Sort them to make sense, and have all the news I'm interested in one place. An RSS widget basically just resegregates content into little (glossy) blocks.

My theory is that for a news org, these widgets are designed as a marketing tool. Sure, I can visit the Today show's web site for the latest cooking tips. But why miss the chance to stare at Matt Lauer on my Yahoo! Widget bar all day?

So what's the point of informational widgets? While the standard web site allows you to read information, the key to widgets is they allow you to monitor information.

My two favorite widgets are package tracking and flight times. A year ago if I wanted to track my Amazon shipment, I would go to my email, find the tracking number, go over to FedEx, find the US package tracking tool, paste the number... Now the widget automatically updates that information for me, and all it takes is a glance at my Dashboard to see when my DVDs are arriving.

So what news can you monitor as oppose to read? Stocks and weather are obvious areas already well tapped. But as the 2008 elections ramp up, poll data and results stream in from the primary states. Slate has a cool little feature called Election Scorecard on their site which is begging to be made into widgets. During the '04 elections electoral-vote.com became a sensation in the blogosphere for its aggregation of state poll data to predict the winner of the electoral college (as opposed to the Gallup and Zogby polls pushed in the MSM that focused on national totals).

The widgetizing of news speaks to the central problem of most news websites today. We still tend to think of news as a 600-word block of text instead of unfiltered information.

What's the best way to tell the story of the Iraq War's cost? An 800-word piece about the latest appropriation? Or a widget calculator estimating the total cost?

Much like blogs, the point of a widget isn't to have a widget, the point is it's another story form on the web. And for now, mostly untapped."

Not-for-work Widget of the Day

The Stupid Test 2

You will fail. Your boss will see. Everyone in the office will think you're even more stupid than they already do (because you already have way too many of those widget-gamey things on your computer).

(If you think you can pass, or just have to find out, please, try it here on this blog rather than downloading it).

Meebo Me, Baby

I KNOW ya'll get oh-so fired up over widgets. So fired up that maybe commenting on posts just isn't satisfying or instantaneous enough.

Meebo Me.

Meebo, the Web site that brought together five different instant messengers and enabled us to chat away from anywhere without downloads (unlike other IM combos like Adium), has been expanding it's family to include Meebo accounts, widgets and, starting today, games where users can chat as they play (more on those later). It's become an international hit--just check out the Meebo Map to see where Meebophiles are sending IMs.

The Meebo widget--mine's over to the left on the bottom--allows visitors to chat to a site operator directly from the page. If you type something into the Meebo, I'll get your message on my account instantly.

So if you've got a bone to pick, hit me up, we'll Meebo it out.

Widgety Goodness Conference

YOU know you've hit the bigtime when you have a conference.

The first ever widget conference will be held December 6 in Brighton, England (about an hour by car from Central London and one of the hippest seaside towns in England).

I see a very WidgGeek vacation...

The Widgety Goodness conference is hosted by original WidgGeek Ivan Pope, who is about as controversial a figure as there can be in the world of widgets (his most recent pronouncement: the widget is the harbinger of the death of the domain name and the standard internet model as we know it).

Topics will include everything from development platforms for those that design their own to the marketing and financial future of widgets (in a keynote by Colm O'Connor of Joost).

The speakers' list goes to show that widgets are becoming a serious business and industry--these folks aren't just a bunch of programming geeks and bloggers.

In a true new media move, there will be no press passes released, only blog passes. Feel free to hit up pay pal and sponsor your favorite widgetblogger to go...

No word yet on whether American companies and developers plan to catch up with a conference of their own...thoroughly not surprising.

Personal addiction

I CAN'T live without the qube.

I've been purposefully trying to avoid just giving shout-outs to whatever widgets I'm grooving on, but I can be silent no longer.

You need this widget.

This is a widget for the ADD generation, the generation of on-the-go, all the time. You can get an overview of everything you need to know to get through the day, and if you happen to have an extra 45 seconds, the qube links you to the provider site.

It's a terrific business proposition, too. Widgetqube makes money of advertisements placed (sort of) innocuously, and the provider sites make money (eventually) because the qube drives their page views.

The presets for news outlets on the qube are pretty solid--you get a good variety of traditional and non-traditional media. But you can add your favorite news outlets, and check them all at once (I have the BBC, the Washington Post, and the Huffington Post on my general news tab). I'm also a fan of the different tabs--health, technology, politics, and the likes. Too often, RSS widgets limit themselves to just the top headlines, or just hard news. While widgets thrive on specificity, there is something to be said of having such a huge variety of topics there. Presumably, the widget serves those just needing a thorough but quick survey of what's going on in the world. Having a variety of topics naturally extends from this idea; these folks need a wide-range update. It's something that broadcast, paper and even news online cannot provide.

This is what a news-based, RSS widget should be. I know there are tons of RSS feed widgets out there, some from a third party, some that feed just from one news provider's Web site. Personally, I prefer mixed feeds in general because you get a diversity of voices. But it is the options, the customization, and the variety of the qube that makes it stand out.

A widget that works

THERE'S more to widgets than harvesting headlines and playing games.

Today, White Fence, an the largest online comparison marketplace for home needs like electricity, gas and other utilities and services, today released it's widget (see the bottom of this page). The purpose is to allow realtor's to add value to their Web sites by being able to quickly answer potential buyers' questions about the cost of living in the area.

That's a pretty hefty task for a technology that evolved primarily to enable people to waste time at work.

The White Fence widget stands as an example of where widgets are going in the future: mega-utilitarian, mega-time saving, mega-functional. They will expand our ability to offer related products to what we're selling. White Fence widget enables realtors to help their customers beyond their personal abilities. In the future, maybe there will be widgets to add that connect to banks home loan information. Colleges could have similar loan widgets. A jeweler could have a widget for restaurants on it's engagement ring page.

The Internet has made our world smaller, expanded the global village, yadda yadda. But it's widgets that are bringing it closer and closer.

Not-for-work Widget of the Day

Lava Lamp
AFTER searching for, downloading and trying more widgets in the last week than ever before, it has become incredibly apparent that some developers like to make their products when they are completely baked.

Lava Lamp has to be such a product, since lava lamps can only possibly be amusing with the help of THC in real life; it can only require additional substance abuse to make them amusing on a computer screen.

Lava Lamp has 27,589 to date. REALLY?!

Save this one for the home computer unless you want your boss to suspect your stoner habits, past or present.