Thursday, March 20, 2008

The future of widgets

Widgets are increasing in use as a communication tool for marketers (but less so for PR)

I saw these 2 different posing articles on BusinessWeek and was reminded of a recent posting about portable content as well as an email conversation I had with a client on the future of web widgets:

Why widgets won't work:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_131531.htm

Widgets, the future of online ads:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080229_871649.htm


Obviously there's still a debate on their validitity. However some larger companies are trialling different revenue models for their widgets and CBS is entering into an affilliate/revenue sharing deal with bloggers who use theirs:
http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9895536-36.html


If you are investigating whether to go invest in widgets or other micro-publishing formats, it may be best to run a small cost-effective trial rather than investing too much at this point. But its worth keeping an eye on those that are pioneering them.

No comments: