Posts from the ‘widgets’ Category
Today ComScore announced Widget Metrix, a service designed to track the usage of widgets across the web.
And the initial stats certainly seem to reinforce the view that widgets are an important new distribution/redistribution trend.
Slide widgets, for example, reached a staggering 117 million viewers in April, with RockYou not too far behind at 82 million.
Expect the Facebook API and the embrace of widgets by mainstream media companies like NBC and CBS to push these figures yet higher.
At least two big questions do remain, though. How, if at all, will widget developers monetize their audience? And what toll will social networks like MySpace and Facebook take?
For those of you who’ve been reading this blog since last fall, you’ll know that I’ve been watching the widget space, and the widget company Clearspring, for a while now. I pretty much joined the Widget hype bandwagon at the end of ’06, right when it started to pick up steam. Yes, I was attracted by sizzle more than steak, since there really wasn’t any meat there yet.
From what I am hearing and seeing, I think the widget models are going to start becoming more clear during the second half of ’07. The first half of this year has been about experimentation, which I’ve seen both across the industry and across my own portfolio. The short answer is that widgets work and often are an important means of distribution. Expect to see some pretty serious deployments in the back half of this year.
One of those will be NBC, which just announced a widget platform it is launching with Clearspring. Read/Write Web has a good overview, as does Clearspring founder Hooman Radfar.
Lots of discussion, everywhere, about Widgets. The common question is business model. I had interesting conversations on the topic yesterday with Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Dick Costolo (Feedburner) and the folks over at NBBC.
I’ve also had a good parry with Brad Feld on the topic over on his terrific blog. (Thanks Ivan, I’ve fixed the link).
So, I am going to try to start a debate here with the best thinkers on the topic: Can the “widget management systems” companies build a real (ie, valuable enough for “venture returns”) business? Ed A, Hooman, Brad F, Mark J, Dick C, Chris F, Fred W, please have at it!
If you’ve been on my site for 5 seconds or more, you’ll notice music playing.
I am trying out the new “SongSpot” widget from Sonific.
Let me know what you think!
Good piece in today’s NYT about widgets.
I continue to beat the widgets drum everywhere I go…I think my partners, portfolio CEOs, wife and kids, etc…, are sick of hearing it!
But I am not going to stop.
After spending 3 days out at the Web 2.0 Conference I think I probably saw about 50 early stage Web 2.0 companies.
Like most at the conference, I generally was more struck by how many of these startups were really “features” as opposed to real business opportunities.
One company, though, did get me excited — Clearspring Technologies. Led on the technology side by one of the WebMethods founders, these guys are a “widgetizer.” In other words, they make it very easy for content owners and web developers to create widgets so that others can incorporate this content or application into their own sites, blogs, spaces, etc.
As I’ve posted before, I think the whole notion of syndicating/distributing web content is one of the more important trends we’ll see over the next couple years, and I think there is a great opportunity for someone to make a lot of hay out of being a horizontal value added enabler in this value equation.
Unfortunately for me, VCs were flocking all over these guys at the show. In fact, at one point I was chatting with Clearspring CEO Chris Marentis at the show when Vinod Khosla comes up and, with nary a word to me, drags Chris off into a separate room. Funny, I thought Vinod was out of the web and into energy investing these days??
Om has a good read on the rise of widgets.
VCMike's Blog 