Just posted an interesting post that takes a look at the “Widget Space” on our Widgetmatic Blog.

The post tries to shed light on what widgets are, how companies should use them what the widget space really is.

After I posted my Gigya examples post, the good folks at Clearspring were kind enought to let me know that in fact they had once again regained worldwide widget domination, my apologies, hard to keep up with these things (after all we only build them). Mashable’s ClearSpring Regains the Worldwide Widget Lead, Launches Smart Sharing Features reads:

Earlier this month, we reported that Gigya had taken the worldwide lead in terms of worldwide reach for widgets. That lead was apparently short-lived, as the latest numbers place Clearspring at the top of the heap. The company’s traffic jumped 59% from August to September, in large part because of its acquisition of the social bookmarking application AddThis. In all, comScore now reports 254 million monthly unique viewers of Clearspring widgets across the Web.

It’s always a good strategy to build market share (and mindshare) by acquiring partners or competitors. I am certain you we will see a couple more acquisitions in the coming months by widget platform players to bolster their numbers and market lead.

When adding sharing functionality to widgets there are usually 3 options: Clearspring, Gigya or custom. Assuming you don’t want to go  the custom route, its either Clearspring or Gigya (the companies actually have an almost equal share of the marketing).

Gigya is unfortunately not as “cool” as Clearspring, its verdana 11 point type and pixelated buttons don’t have as much appeal to the Web 2.0 crowd.  I often get asked by clients for some good examples of Clearspring widget but since they have only a limited number of widgets in they “featured” gallery (and since some widget, specially those for movies have a limited life span) it usually takes some time to find good examples. Here are examples is some widget categories:

Movies and TV Series Widgets

• High School Musical 3 (Movie Widget)
• Fox’s Terminator (TV Series Widget)
• Indiana Jones “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (Movie Widget)
• Grey’s Anatomy (TV Series Widget)
• Office Videos (TV Series Widget)

Bands and Music Artists Widgets

• Introspect Songcards (Music Artist Widget)
• Jonas Brothers Live Performance (Video Widget)
• Paula Abdul: Music Video (Video Widget)
• Linkin Park (Music Artist Widget)
• The Best of Radiohead (Music Artist Widget)

Non-Profit Widgets

• National Geographic Widgets (Various)
• Defeat Dementia (Advocacy Widget)
• CareYouKeep.com (Video Widget)
• Photo of the Day (Photo Widget)

Political and Government Widgets

• Legislative Failure to Act (Political Widget)
• FBI 10 Most Wanted (Government Widget)
• NY Times Election Results Widget (News Widget)
• Politico 44 President’s Calendar (Events Widget)
• National Protest Against Prop 8 (Political Widget)
• My Debt to Labour (Political Widget)

Games and Puzzle Widgets

• Publisher’s Clearning House Share & Win (Game Wiget)
• Gogo: The Game (Game Widget)
• The Office DVD (Game Widget)
• WashingtonPost.com’s Photo Scrambler (Puzzle Widget)

Sports Widgets

• ESPN Mens Basketball Scoreboard (Sports Widget)
• The Official NFL Widget (Sports Widget)
• ABC Grandstand Cricket Kit (Sports News Widget)
• ESPN MLB Standings (Sports Widget)

According to comScore (June 2008), 62% of the worldwide Internet audience has viewed a widget, Canadians being the heaviest users (80% penetration) and Asia being among the lowest.

The report also shows Gigya and ClearSpring worldwide penetration as being almost equal (13.1% vs 13.7%).  It has a lot of other interesting widget (and social media) facts. For example, in April 2008, Facebook application usage had reached 9% of the worldwide internet population (I am sure that has grown since).

The report goes as far as to profile heavy vs light widget viewers. The report and presentation (at the Web Widget Expo) are definitely worth checking out!

Widget Web Expo June 17 2008 V2 3 – Presentation Transcript
1. MEASURING THE DIGITAL WORLD Tracking Widgets in the Wild (Worldwide) Linda Abraham EVP, Product Management comScore Inc. June 17, 2008
2. What We Do…. ¦ comScore measures the continuous online activity of 2 million people enabling us to measure their p p g online and offline consumer behavior ¦ The consumer panel is a representative cross section of the US Population and worldwide regions and countries p g ¦ Permission to survey panelists; Permission to match to 3rd party databases; Addition of other offline data through partnerships g ¦ Portfolio of products and services that include syndicated audience measurement, tracking studies, ad-hoc analysis and custom panels Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 2
3. 950 + Blue Chip Customers Internet Agencies Telecom Financial Retail Travel CPG Pharma Technology Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 3
4. Report 32 Countries Separately… Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 4
5. …But data collected from 171 countries Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 5
6. About The Worldwide Widget Report from comScore ¦ comScore’s Widget Metrix report measures: – Total unique viewers and reach of widgets on a worldwide basis – Reports on demos for widget viewers within the US ¦ Publishers requested 3rd party measurement standardization and verification to help legitimize the value of the market. – Help attract advertisers investors and partners into this growing market advertisers, investors, market. ¦ comScore defines a web widget as an independent object that can be embedded or downloaded onto another site and can be used as a tool, has automatic updates changing the content or is interactive. content, interacti e ¦ Because of the lack of implementation standards, we require tagging to be included in our report ¦ Widget usage is both strong and wide: – Over 62% of Worldwide Internet audience has viewed a widget. – I the US M k this b ll In h Market, hi balloons to over 77% of the market % f h k – Canadians are the heaviest users, with widgets reaching over 80% of the internet population comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 6
7. Worldwide Widget Reach ¦ North America leads in widget penetration and usage ¦ Widget reach in Asia is among the lowest but with a very large base lowest, base, translates to significant numbers of widget users Usage Days per Unique Visitors (MM) U i Vi it %R Reach h User Asia Pacific 53.6% 6.9 North America 77.6% 8.5 Western Europe 60.0% 6.0 Latin America 70.4% 6.6 Eastern Europe 51.9% 5.6 Middle E t d Middl East and 68.3% 6.0 Africa comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 7
8. Worldwide Widget Reach ¦ Within regions, there is a wide variance in the penetration of widgets by country Widgets % Reach % Reach Canada 80.6 Singapore 79.7 Puerto Rico 79.5 Malaysia 78.4 Portugal 78.4 Austria 49.0 Switzerland 48.7 Sweden 46.9 Russian Federation 32.3 Japan 29.1 comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 8
9. Social Networks Are Enjoying Strong Worldwide Growth With Room to Go ¦ Social Networks are growing worldwide ¦ In the Asia Pacific region, these sites are growing at a rate that is almost 6 times the category’s growth in North America category s ¦ The Americas still have the highest penetration rates Social Networking Growth % Reach 70.0 60.0 50.0 Y/Y Unique Visitor 40.0 Growth Rates Worldwide: 58% 30.0 Asia-Pacific :119% North America:19% 20.0 Europe: 75% Latin America: 72% 10.0 MidEast-Africa: 145% 0.0 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07 Apr-07 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 North America Asia Pacific Europe Latin America Middle East Africa Source: comScore World Metrix, January 2007-January 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 9
10. Worldwide, Facebook Drove the Category’s Growth in 2007, overtaking MySpace this month ¦ Worldwide, Facebook is the Social Network with the traction, overtaking MySpace on a worldwide basis this month Social Networking Sites: Worldwide Source: comScore World Metrix, April 2007 – April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 10
11. Widget Reach vs. Video Reach ¦ Widgets Reach more persons in the US than Video % Reach Widgets % Reach Video Difference All Persons 77.2% 70.5% 6.7 Persons: 2-17 72.7% 68.9% 3.8 Persons: 18-24 82.0% 73.6% 8.4 Persons: 25-34 82.9% 73.4% 9.5 Persons: 35 44 P 35-44 79 8% 79.8% 72 8% 72.8% 70 7.0 Persons: 45-54 77.1% 70.1% 7.0 Persons: 55+ 70.5% 65.0% 5.5 All Males 77.5% 72.1% 5.5 Male: 2-17 2 17 73 8% 73.8% 72 0% 72.0% 18 1.8 Male: 18-24 81.3% 76.8% 4.5 Males: 25-34 83.6% 74.4% 9.2 Males: 35-44 80.0% 73.6% 6.4 Male: 45-54 77.6% 70.8% 6.8 Male: 55+ 71.1% 66.2% 4.8 All Females 76.9% 69.0% 7.9 Female: 2-17 71.5% 65.5% 6.0 Female: 18-24 82.7% 70.5% 12.2 Females: 25-34 82.2% 72.6% 9.7 F Females: 35 44 l 35-44 79.6% 79 6% 72.0% 72 0% 7.6 76 Female: 45-54 76.7% 69.5% 7.3 Female: 55+ 70.0% 63.7% 6.2 comScore Widget Metrix and Video Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 11
12. Platform Reach by Country is well established Clearspring Penetration Gigya Penetration Top 20 Countries Top 20 Countries Country % Reach Country % Reach World 13.1% 13 1% World 13.7% 13 7% Ireland 33.8% Portugal 41.3% Portugal 33.4% Puerto Rico 31.6% New Zealand 29.8% Singapore 25.8% Singapore 26.8% Malaysia 24.9% United Kingdom 26.4% Mexico 24.9% United States 26.1% United States 24.9% Puerto Rico 24.6% Colombia 21.8% Malaysia 18.9% Australia 17.4% Canada 18 0% 18.0% Italy 15 4% 15.4% Australia 17.0% United Kingdom 14.7% Brazil 16.6% Canada 14.0% Mexico 16.4% Chile 13.4% Colombia 13.6% Argentina 12.3% India 7.3% Austria 11.9% Norway 7.1% Brazil 11.2% Austria 6.9% Norway 10.5% Netherlands 6.6% Spain 10.1% Italy 5 8% 5.8% Israel 8.7% 8 7% Switzerland 5.6% Switzerland 8.4% Sweden 5.2% Germany 7.6% comScore Widget Metrix , April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 12
13. Facebook Applications ¦ Applications on Facebook reach 9% of Worldwide internet population – The Top 5 Facebook Applications have continued to maintain significant presence Worldwide Reach of Facebook Applications 9.0% FACEBOOK.COM – Applications Super Wall FunWall Top Friends Bumper Sticker Movies 8.0% 7.0% 6.0% 5.0% % Reach 4.0% 3.0% 3 0% 2.0% 1.0% 0.0% Aug-07 Sep-07 Oct-07 Nov-07 Dec-07 Jan-08 Feb-08 Mar-08 Apr-08 comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 13
14. Facebook Applications ¦ Both Men & Women use the more popular applications… applications Application Usage Composition Index Application Males Females FunWall 104 96 Top Friends 101 99 Movies o es 100 100 00 Super Wall 98 102 comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 (US Only) Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 14
15. Facebook Applications ¦ …but there are wide differences in usage of other applications but Application Usage Composition Index Application Males Females FunWall 104 96 Top Friends 101 99 Movies o es 100 100 00 Super Wall 98 102 What’s Your Stripper 47 153 Happy H ! H Hour! 57 143 Hugs 71 129 HOT or NOT 114 86 Armyfight 158 43 comScore Widget Metrix, April 2008 (US Only) Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 15
16. Where are Widget Viewers spending time? ¦ Heavy Widget Viewers have very different browsing preferences than Light Widget Viewers Duration Index by Site Category Heavy Widget Viewers Light Widget Viewers Conversational Media 281 20 Corporate Presence 260 50 Entertainment 214 50 Search/Navigation g 183 70 Retail 162 73 e-mail 160 64 Online Trading g 99 132 Genealogy 63 132 Home Furnishings 88 125 Lotto/Sweepstakes 91 119 Travel – Information 86 115 Financial Information/Advice 95 105 comScore Widget Metrix and Media Metrix, April 2008 Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 16
17. Widgets & E-Commerce ¦ Heavy Widget Viewers have specific online spending habits Buying Buying E-Commerce Category Power E-Commerce Category Power Index Index VIDEO GAME CONSOLES & ACCESSORIES 250 OTHER HOME & LIVING ITEMS 80 GIFT CERTIFICATES & COUPONS 185 JEWELRY & WATCHES 79 TRAVEL PACKAGES 161 ARTS, CRAFTS & PARTY SUPPLIES 73 GREETINGS 151 OTHER TOY & GAME ITEMS 71 ONLINE CONTENT SALES 137 TOBACCO PRODUCTS 68 PET SUPPLIES 133 ACCESSORIES 52 ONLINE SERVICES 129 OTHER APPAREL ITEMS 32 comScore Widget Metrix and comScore E-Commerce, April 2008 (US Only) Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 17
18. Tracking Widgets in the Wild ¦ Multiple standards in widget development and deployment led to an individualized approach to tracking the various implementations ¦ Publishers vs. Platforms vs. Networks ¦ SWF Objects ¦ Javascript Objects ¦ Open Social ¦ comScore moving to a new standard to track widgets and other distributed di t ib t d content t t Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 18
19. Tracking Widgets in the Wild ¦ N New standard i collection of di t ib t d content t d d in ll ti f distributed t t – Tagging based collection based on unique ID’s • Append tag to any existing http call – C ll ti i d Collection is development standard and d li l t t d d d delivery mechanism agnostic h i ti – Reported through comScore’s Media Metrix interface • Currency for over 600 clients including agencies, media planners and publishers http://www.site.com/widget.swf?CXNID=0031001.0123456789NXC Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 19
20. Widgets can deliver… ¦ C Coveted d t d demographic t hi targets t ¦ Targets that are valuable to advertisers ¦ Worldwide audiences ¦ People at the time of engagement—might be more predisposed to advertising ¦ But…They get stale easily Freshness, engagement, and a global view F h t d l b l i Proprietary and Confidential Do not distribute without written permission from comScore 20

I recently blogged a post about recent widget new and trends and thought one of my point need further exploration!

Here are some widget developers and platforms that recently (last 6 months) raised money:

• iWidget, a widget tools developer, raised $4.1 million in Series A funding in February 2009 from Opus Capital and University Venture Fund.
• KickApps, a social media and widget platform, raised $14 million in Series C in December 2008 from North Atlantic Capital, and existing investors Softbank, Spark Capital, and Prism Ventures.
• RockYou, a widget developer and ad network, raised a $17 million Series C in November 2008 from Softbank and SK Telecom Ventures. The company is also backed by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
• Gigya, a popular widget distribution platform, raised $11 million in Series C in October of 2008 from  DAG Ventures.
• JS-Kit, Javascript widget platform provider, raised a $3.6 million Series B from Altos Ventures and existing investor The Entrepreneur’s Fund III (TEF3).
• Note: If you look a little further than 6 months you will notice ClearSpring raised $18 Million in May 2008 from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), look back a year and the amount becomes staggering $160 million+ with Slide raising $50 million in Jan 2008 as did WidgetBox raising $8 million form Sequoia capital, Gigya raising $9.5 million in March, Buddy Media with $6.4 million in April, RockYou raised $35 million in June and these are just the ones I know about. This does not include all the social ad networks or small “single purpose” widget companies.

Add up the numbers and its close to $50 million invested in the last 6 months, $160+ million invested in the last year or so if you look a little further – all this just on widget platform providers and developers! In the last couple of years, widgets have become the media marketing darlings of advertising companies on Madison Avenue. Hype from publications like Newsweek and GigaOm as well as ComScore’s Widget Metrix report have only added fuel to the fire!

But based on these numbers you would think widgets were taking over the world. Hopefully most of these VC’s have done their research, most however, have concluded that widgets are an opportunity they are banking on, but event $50M may be much! Many VC’s such as David Cohen, have been bullish on widget while other like Lightspeed’s Jerry Liew, Polaris Ventures’ Sim Simeonov, and Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson have been more cautious. Most point to the lack of good business models (other than building them for a living). Personally, I tend to agree with Mobius Venture’s Brad Feld the most who rightly concludes in his post on widgets:

While there might be room for one or two “widget management systems”, there certainly isn’t the need for 23 of them.

If 2007 has the “Year of the Widget”, you can probably expect 2009 to be the “Year of Widget Fallout”. While widgets continue to be one of the best marketing ideas around for “packaging a website in a box”, how many widget platforms and networks and builders and generators do we really need?

Here is a quick roundup of a couple of recent interesting widget news and trends:

• Chumby – the real “Widet Box”
  Chumby makes a super cool $199 Linux-based “always-on” Internet media player with over 1,000 Flash-based widgets in more than 30 categories . Chumby recently partnered with Samsung to power a widget-enabled digital photo frame! Definately worth checking out!
• Widget from FDA Saves Lives! – Potentially
  Kudos to the FDA (yes, the US Government puts out widgets) for putting out a widget about the peanut butter salmonella recalls!
• New President Obama has Appetite for Widgets!
  Obama staffers are well versed in the art of social media marketing and make good use widgets including: Blist for doc sharing, iGoogle and WidgetBox “Spread the Word” and fund raising widgets during the campaign. Hopefully other politicians will follow!
• Widget Platforms Get Funded to the Tune of $50M!
  iWidget, a widget tools developer, recently raised $4.1 million in Series A funding. KickApps, a social media and widget platform closed a $14 million Series C in December, Gigya closed a $11 million Series C in October of 2008.  In November, widget developer RockYou raised a $17 million Series C. That same month, Javascript widget platform provider JS-Kit raised a $3.6 million Series B. Looks like a lot of money is being raised, all to make lil widgets! Did VC just put over $50 Million into widget companies in the last six months?

It has been possible for sometime (because of the MacOS widget’s webkit support for plugins) to port flash widgets or application to the Macintosh desktop. There are a couple of caveats to be aware of, however, when doing this:

1. Ensure your Info.plist file is Setup Correctly
   Ensure the following two lines are in the Info.plist file for your Mac Widget:
    <key>AllowNetworkAccess</key>
<true/>
<key>AllowInternetPlugins</key>
<true/>
   This will allow the widget to support Adobe Flash objects and allow network access.
2. Ensure your Flash Object is Running Locally not Remotely
   Accessing Adobe Flash files remotely from your MacOS widget may cause problems due to  security sandboxing so if at all possible, avoid it.
3. Beware of Floating DIVs
   Whenever you try and place a floating DIV over a Flash object, you are sure to run into trouble. Design your widget so any HTML/Javascript generated floating DIV do not obscure the Flash object.
4. Flash Transparency Does Not Work
   In order to get the widget to “float” nicely on your desktop with a drop shadow (as most MacOS widgets have) you need to place it on top of a DIV that has a transparent/semi-transparent PNG. Obviously, the DIV needs to be larger than the size of your Flash object
5. Use Clearspring or Gigya for Sharing and Tracking
   You can use Clearspring’s In-widget model or Gigya to enable sharing and tracking from within your Flash object, that way users can share the widget with friends on the web or other platforms. Here is an example we helped develop (Click Grab Me, then Web).
6. Please Refresh and Redraw  as Often as Necessary
   When doing Flash-based widget development we have noticed that a bug in the Webkit sometimes causes refresh/redraw problems with the Flash portion of the widget. There is little you can do do solve this other than to intelligently force the widget to redraw each time a user moves the widget, maximizes the widget and brings focus to the widget (by clicking on it).  In order to do this type of refreshing, you will need to use swfobject.js. SWFObject is a small Javascript file used for embedding Adobe Flash content on webpages (and in widgets). It is capable of detecting and handling Flash plug-in versions correctly in all major web browsers(on Mac and PC) and can really make embedding Flash movies a lot easier!
7. Passing in User Preferences
   Using swfobject.js and flashvars you can pass user preference from the MacOS widget environment into your Flash object.  Redraw the Flash object, reading and then passing in preferences via the flashvar, each time you load or change them.

Hope this pointers help, if you run into problems, let us know!

Since I get asked this question a lot, here is a quick round up of the more popular widget marketplaces, builders and distribution platforms (at least the ones that matter most):

1. Widgets to not appear to feature a full range of sharing options
2. SDK is not publicly available and adds functionality to the SproutBuilder

I predict that 2009 will be the year widget ad networks become a reality. Companies like Clearspring, Widgetbox, Gigya, SpringWidgets, and iWidgets have provided free widget distribution and/or development platforms for a number of years. Expect that to change in the future.  Widget platform providers are externally and internally experimenting with mechanisms to monitize their previously “free” services (ClearSpring announced their widget ad network in Dec 2007, Gigya announced theirs in January). The monitization trend makes senses, Web 2.0 companies have to figure out how to generate revenue, and with where the economy and financial markets are today, there is not better time to start than now.

Expect to see the following types of ecommerce models being applied to widget distribution.

• Recommended and sponsored widgets channels
• In-Widget advertising
• Mini ad banners within widget sharing menus
• Trial and premium widgets
• Premium widget delivery and tracking
• Paid widget distribution

There seems to be a lot of confusion about how to get Clearspring integrated into your widget using the In-Widget API model (which is the only way to go if you developing a ‘professional widget’). I decided to outline the basic steps involved

Adding a Widget:
First you will need to create a Clearspring widget (this assumes you have already created your Clearspring account).

1. Click Add Widget.
2. You will be given 3 options: In My Widget, On My Webpage and Using the In-Widget API. Select Using the In-Widget API.
3. Enter the informaton for your widget including its name, code type, sharing menu type, colors, sizes and other options.
4. For Share menu you want to choose Default Menu or Just Tracking
5. Under What Do you Want to Share enter the embed HTML for your widget
6. Next, Clearspring will provide you with some sample code for your widget (under Grab your Launchpad advanced code!). The sample code isn’t the most intuitive but its a good start. I will try and share some “actual” code you can use in a future post.

Editing A Widget:
Now you can further customize/edit your widget. The primary tabs you’ll work with are:

1. Template Content
   This allows you to modify the HTML embed content that is generated when user’s share your widget. This is the same content you entered above in the What Do you Want to Share section.
2. Library Code
   This is were you can get the code (AS3, AS2 or Javascript) for your widget. This should be the same code generate at the end of the Adding a Widget process.
3. The rest of the tabs can generally be safetly ignored unless you want your widget to appear/live on the Clearspring site.

Modifying for Flash/Action Script Code:
There are 4 steps involved in actually implement Clearspring sharing and tracking within your widget.

1. Imports
   You need to make sure you have correct imports at the top of your code. Common mistake is to forget this step.
2. Initialization
   You need to initialize the Clearspring Flash API before you can do anything with it. Go head and initialize it in your Flash code. Hopefully you can figure out how to do this using the sample code.
3. Share Menu
   To call the share menu, you’ll need to create a share button, attach a click event to it, and add a click function that looks something like this:
   
function on_share_click(event:MouseEvent):void
{
kernel.menu.show();
kernel.track.event('ClearSpring Share'); // custom event
};
4. Tracking
   When ever you need to track something simple use: kernel.track.event(YOUR_EVENT_NAME_HERE);

Easier said than done but hopefully this provides a good start and helps you avoid some of the common mistakes (choosing the wrong model, working in the wrong tabs, missing a key step) that many of the folks we do Clearspring widget consulting run into!