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3 Types of Widgets

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There are three types of widgets, and they can all be used to achieve different goals. A comparison table is provided below.

• Desktop Widgets: Users download the widget and may keep it running constantly in the background. Pros: They provide a pervasive brand experience for the widget producer even if the user is offline. Cons: They require downloading, and they’re only seen by the user who downloaded it. Examples include WeatherBug’s live weather updates and Southwest Airlines’ Ding! deal alert.
  
  
• Personal Web Widgets: Users post the widgets to their personal homepages such as My Yahoo or iGoogle. Pros: For users who set their personal homepages as their browsers’ start pages, the widget may be viewed every time the user’s online. Cons: They’re only seen by the user who added it, and the user has to regularly visit his or her personal homepage for the widget publisher to get the most value. Examples include Universal Studios’ “Ultimate Search for Bourne,” a game with new activities posted daily which can be quickly accessed via Google Gadgets that users place on their iGoogle pages.
  

• Public Web Widgets: A user posts a widget publicly to social network profiles, blogs, online communities, and other sites. For the best widgets (or the laziest users), they stay on those pages indefinitely. Facebook Applications fall under this category. Pros: They scale -- if the user installs one widget, it can be seen by many people, and the user can install it on multiple sites. Cons: The publisher needs to provide new content daily or weekly to keep the widget fresh, or it must be highly interactive so that users can constantly experience it in new ways. Examples include the iLike Facebook application, where users can see if their friends are attending any concerts by their favorite artists, and they can compete with their friends in a “name that tune” trivia game.