Widgets are snippets of html code that can be embedded in a web page to perform a specific function. In the sidebar on the right of this post my LinkedIn Profile and the Feedburner "Subscribe Using a Feed Reader" are examples of widgets.
Alex Iskold has a very interesting post at Read/Write Web about the Random House widget. Random House describes the widget:
"The widget is a lightweight internet application that can be easily embedded into a Web page. In its small version, at 195 x 335 pixels, it fits snugly into any website and delivers interactive book previews by allowing a user to page forward and back through the book or search for keywords in the actual text content of the book - without ever leaving the Web page. With one click to its main screen, the small version expands to the large version in its own full-size pop-up window (600 x 700 pixels) delivering high-quality, readable preview pages, text search and a thumbnail page navigator. The large version can also be embedded in a Web page, if you'd like to feature the book front and center." The widget also works for audio products from Random House.
While some of this functionality is available at Amazon.com and Google.com, Random House can now make this functionality available to anyone referencing a Random House title on a web page (and the widget also lets you purchase the book). Some sample widgets can be found here (near the bottom of the page). As Alex points out, this widget strengthens the Random House brand and makes it easy to showcase Random House products. Can a Ford or Citibank widget be far behind?
Another interesting use of widgets is ContentLink which is used on posts at LifeHack.org. If you go to this post and scroll down to the title
Am I Crazy Here?
This is a technology that accounts for a lot of what we might want in collaboration management, hosted on hordes of servers we don’t have to touch, at the cost of free,
When you scroll over the words in blue an ad from ContentLink appears. (Because I did not embed the html code for these words in this post you need to go to the actual post to see the Contentlink ads.) The ContentLink widget provides an easy way to link your brand to a particular word or phrase.
I have just mentioned two examples of widgets, but hundreds of programmers are developing widgets to use for advertising and branding. I think that soon most major companies will launch widget strategies. Eventually we will have the "Merrill Lynch Finance Dictionary" widget. Instead of having to define every finance term I use in this blog, I will be able to insert a Merrill widget that you can scroll over to find the meaning of a term. Or, maybe every time you scroll over a company name in Yahoo Finance a Merrill widget will pop up and offer to let you buy the stock at the current offer price.
As you enjoy your 4th of July holiday, I think somebody out there is coding widgets for the Fortune 500. Your company needs to think sooner rather than later about a strategy for widgets. Otherwise, the Miami real estate widget will be branding a company from North Carolina.