This weeks roundup of interesting widget news, trends and analysis:

• Windows Mobile Widgets are Coming
  Microsoft has confirmed that widgets will indeed a part of the new Windows Mobile 6.5 OS that hits the market later in the year. Widgets will be compliance with the emerging W3C standard for mobile widget applications. Simply called “Windows Mobile Widgets, these widgets will be powered by IE Mobile 6.0 and will support web technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript; as well as Flash and ActiveX controls.
• TV Widget to be More Popular than Expected
  I have covered TV widget several times in past posts and recently the Diffusion Group released new data suggesting that the appeal of widget-enabled TV will be far greater than many expect. According to TDG’s research, 76% of consumers believe having a widget toolbar on their primary TV would be valuable (48% “somewhat valuable” and 28% “extremely valuable”) with only 13% being neutral and 11% negative. Sony also announced new line of HDTVs with Yahoo widgets this week.
• Verizon opening up its FiOS Platform to Widget Developers
  Verizon which first announced widget plans for FiOS last year, has already added widgets that display news and information on the screen, but it wants to take that one step further and open a “Widget Bazaar” in the fall to showcase some of the apps developers will submit.
• “Social” Widgets Outperform “Utility” Widgets for Brand Advertisers
  A study by Gigya, Inc shows that Social widgets outperformed Utility widgets, when installed by users on Social Network pages, in the categories of User Interaction, Widget Longevity, and Widget Virality. No surprise!

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?