A quick roundup of recent widget news, trends and analysis:

• Clearspring to Exit Widget Sharing Business
  Clearspring is is putting one of its widget services (Launchpad), to bed and focusing all its energy on the AddThis service. (more)
• Thinking Screen Media Brings Widgets to Syabas’ DAVID Platform
  Metablocks client make widget waves on TV and set-top platforms.
• Hackers break into RockYou and Gain Access to Social Media Data
  Hackers broke into an online database hosted at RockYou.com and illegally accessed the usernames and passwords for more than 30 million users of Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and Orkut.
• Government Departments Continue Widget Trend
  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a widget last week that can help distribute user-friendly public-health information.

Here are some interesting recent widget related post from our Widgetmatic Blog:

• Widgetmatic Series Beefs Up Online Video Support and Options
  Video has always been a key component on widgets. With their growing popularity, online videos quickly and easily be integrated into both custom and prefab Widgetmatic widgets.
• Widgetmatic AIR Widgets for the Desktop
  While many people use Adobe Flash-based widgets on the Web, dashboard widgets have allowed users to access the same widget functionality on their own desktop.
• Clearspring API’s going Away – What to Do Next?
  You have about 100 days left till April 5^th, 2010 when your Clearspring widgets will stop working (unless you switch to their AddThis platform, Gigya or another widget sharing provider). 
• New Quantcast Web Analytics Tab for Widgets!
  Recently we have added a family of web analytics tabs which rely on both public (Alexa.com, Compete.com) and internal web analytics (Google Analytics, Omniture) information that can be incorporated into a Widgetmatic widget.

Here is quick roundup of this week’s interesting widget news, trends and analysis:

• Britney Spear Tour Widgets Makes Debut
  All artists need them, smart artists have them – widgets! Britney’s social media manager Lauren Kozak announces a new widget to celebrate the second North American leg of Britney’s tour.
• Digital Photo Frame Widgets are the Future!
  This week Sungale announced a Wifi Widget photo frame with a 800 x 600 resolution touchscreen boasts 512 MB of internal storage for only $165 (available next month). Expect to see digital photo frames become mainstream (probably this Christmas) as more intelligence and functionality is built into them. I think the real value (and money) is in MANAGING the content that goes out on these digital internet-enabled photo frames. One of our clients, FrameChannel, does exactly this and has a phenomenal service aimed at delivering almost any type of content (Photos, News, Twitter, Facebook, i.e.) via digital photo frames!
• Your are Never Too Old to Make a Widget – IBM Widgets for LinkedIn
  Its probably been a while since many of us use a product from IBM (remember Lotus Notes), but the company recently announced the first two in a new initiative to develop widgets for a wide variety of business needs including TripIt and LinkedIn apps integratd into Lotus Notes desktop!
• Vendors Start Announcing and Releasing Yahoo TV Widgets and FiOS TV Widgets
  Sonic Solutions announced a Roxio CinemaNow Yahoo! TV Widget (available in the fall) that allows users to search, rent and buy movies. Interative TV games provider, PlayJam is planning to offer a Yahoo TV widget. Verizon is bringing Twitter, Facebook and YouTube widgets to its FiOS TV platform. Vizio announced that some popular services including eBay, Facebook, Twitter, Rallypoint Sports, Showtime, Revision3, Radiotime, and Vudu, will be available on their HDTV’s, powered by the Yahoo TV Widgets engine. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 already features Netflix Watch Instantly, and later this fall will also offer Facebook and Twitter.  

Wanted to share an old screen capture of the Yahoo! Widget TV to give folks an overall idea of how the new Yahoo! Widgets look and work.

You will notice that at the bottom of the screen is a dock that displays widget snippets (dynamic icons). Once clicked, a widget opens up in a sidebar. Widgets can also enter a fullscreen graphical or video mode. The Connected TV environment comes with a Gallery Widget that is used to browse and add 3^rd party widgets. Individual widgets feature a horizontal tabbed menu metaphor (very similar approach to the Widgetmatic 600 series). Each widget has a title area, a “Navigation Start Point” (usually where the content goes), a set of horizontal tabs (menus), as well as a global toolbar (at the bottom).

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.

This week’s round up of interesting widget news, trends and analysis:

• Widgets Still Strong!
  Wall Street Journal’s “Still A Wonderful World Of Web Widgets For Some Start-Ups” concludes that widgets are still well and alive!
• Widget Maker Gydget get Acquired
  Gydget, once known for its attempts to go after the music bands, has been acquired by Adgregate, which plays to distribute its ShopAds on the 200,000 widgets that Gydget has created. Can you say, “I wish I owned my own widget”. Gydget was originally founded by Gerardo Capiel, who is now the VP of product management at MySpace.
• iWidgets Becomes Transpond
  Company changes focus to try and power native applications for Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle.
• Quantcast/comScore Widget Traffic Numbers are Big!
  Widgets were all the rage last year and the trend seems to be growing. Widgetbox is reporting 500 million impressions in the past month (Quantcast).  RockYou, however, had 9.5 billion impressions and Clearspring had 520 million unique visitors according to comScore.

We recently worked with Brash Music to put together a widget/facebook application for American Idol contestant and acclaimed Christian music artist Chris Sligh. Built on our Widgetmatic platform (600 series), the very same widget can exist as a web-based flash widget, a native Facebook application, an native OpenSocial application, a Yahoo! widget, an iGoogle widget, a MacOS widget and the list goes on…(not all the features are enabled in this version but you get the idea). Ideal for music labels, artists and film studios, the Widgetmatic series is designed to host and manage an entire network of artists, movies, services or products through a back-end XML widget content management system and an army of ‘pre-fab’ evergreen widgets. Check it out and while you’re at it..don’t forget to vote for Chris (hint: use the widget below)!

We recently submitted a widget (that used Gigya for distribution) and were told that the “email friends” capability in Gigya (and presumeably in Clearspring) did not comply with MySpace’s Terms of Service for OpenSocial applications, which states that “All app communication must be made by OpenSocial APIs and/or the MySpace RESTful APIs”. If you are planning to delivery your Gigya or Clearspring enabled widget as a OpenSocial app on MySpace, be sure to disable the email tab!

I did a post last week on an important trend in digital music sales: music artists and widgets. Here are some examples of music widgets out there (most are “single use widgets” vs. “evergreen widgets”). Next week will dive into some helpful information on what makes a good music artist widget.

Sprout Builder Widgets
– Build using Sprout Builder

• Erykah Badu Widget (Control Freaq Records)
• Clint Darby Widget
• Taylor Swift (Big Machine Records)
• The Smiths
• Jared Anderson
• Barlow Girls (Curb/Word Label Group)
  

Clearspring Widgets
– Use Clearspring platform for distribution

• Eminem, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent (Interscope Records)
• Paula Abdul: Music Video
• Linkin Park (Warner Music)
• Third Day Widget (Essential/Provident Label Group)
  
• U2 Widget (Interscope Records)

Gigya Widgets
– Use Gigya platform for distribution

• Chris Sligh Dove Nomiation Widget (Brash Music)
• Duffy (Universal Music Group)
• Melee Widget
• Bucky Covington (Take A Picture) Widget
• Josh Gracin Widget

Other

• Alicia Keys Vidgoove Widget (J Record/Arista)
• Farze Gang Gydget Widget
• Beyonce Gydget Widget (Columia Records)

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!