Using widgets

Published by admin | Filed under Tech Connect

When going to college I remember my professors in economics and marketing talking about companies and their products and using the term “widgets” They would always use in place of a real companies products to make a point. For example ” How many widgets would company X need to produce in a day to fill the demand, if the they were given a large order that exceeded manufacturing capacity” I have been seeing more the use of the term widget as we use them here in our blog and at or sister site Community Thought on the sidebars, as easy to install toolbars, search forms, and the like.

Advertisers are starting to use them more, as they look for a way to attract new customers, or create buzz about an upcoming movie or software. What may be typical is they offer the free widgets on their site, that you can download on your desktop to say for example ” get the local weather or traffic update” In that there will be some ad placement or branding. The consumer fills a need for having timely information for free, and the advertiser now has your attention. Some widgets will allow the company to see where you are clicking too. Which is helpful to understand and target that consumer in the future. This may sound like Spyware, and maybe it just might be. You will need to check the privacy policy on the website before downloading anything on your PC.

My feeling is that you will see more of these widget type offerings, especially those that offer update on the latest video snipets from place such as YouTube, and MySpace. most common types of widget are those that sites like Yahoo and Google offer such as stock tickers, and airline updates that reside on your desktop that update automatically without you having to log into the website.