---
title: "Widget services ramping up"
date: 2006-06-20
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# Widget services ramping up

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/styles/150_150/public/files/images/postapp2.jpg)[Paul Kedrosky points](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2006/06/15/postapp.html) to a new service called [PostApp](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.postapp.com/), which is a new widgets syndication service currently in private beta. While the sign-up page doesn’t go into detail about what PostApp does, Fergus Burns from Nooked has [an interesting post](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://blog.nooked.com/archives/2006/06/widget_marketin.htm) on this subject:

> “A new space is beginning to develop – widget marketing.
> 
> Led initially be desktop widget services such as [konfabulator](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://widgets.yahoo.com/), we are now seeing tons of services supporting widgets/gadgets – especially in social media applications ([typepad](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.sixapart.com/typepad/widgets/), [wordpress](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://automattic.com/code/widgets/), [myspace](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/05/24/my-pick-list-adds-myspace-widget/), [aimpages](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://start.aimpages.com/), [netvibes](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://eco.netvibes.com/), etc).
> 
> I’ve noted some recent startup activity specifically @ widgets – [Snipperoo](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.snipperoo.com/), [PostApp](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.postapp.com/), [Tagworld](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://tagworld.com/guest/widgets/Default.aspx), and a mobile widget venture from Nokia Labs, called [Widsets](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://www.widsets.com/).
> 
> All these startups are going to make “widget” placements in social media services easy – rather than the current “html/javascript” hacking – watch out for tons of innovation.”

Note: Nooked is one of my clients.

I too have been tracking the growing importance of widgets, especially as it relates to the Personalized Start Pages space – Microsoft Live gadgets, Google’s modules, Netvibes and Pageflakes, and of course Yahoo’s konfabulator (although not yet integrated in a big way into MyYahoo). As Fergus notes, widgets are spreading into many areas now – into blogging platforms like Typepad and WordPress, social networking systems like MySpace and AIMPages, etc. And now there’s a whole new segment growing – which Fergus nicely labels “widget marketing”.

This is all being driven by the increasing use of microcontent and web services in all kinds of web-based services – such as Windows Live, MySpace and WordPress. I used to talk a lot about the Two-Way Web as it relates to webpages – that people have the ability to publish their own blogs, interact with e-commerce sites such as Amazon, etc. Nowadays it’s all about The Two-Way Web App! You can interact and ‘write’ to any number of small web services-driven apps. And aggregation services such as Netvibes and Pageflakes can pack as many of these mini-apps onto one page as you care to add.

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/styles/150_150/public/files/images/snipperoo.jpg)[Snipperoo](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://snipperoo.com/) is another widget service to watch out for. It’s a service to create and manage widgets – Ivan Pope is behind it. Also check out [Zenrob’s post](https://web.archive.org/web/20120422054100/http://zenrob.typepad.com/zenrob/2006/05/the_widgets_on_.html) on MySpace’s widget strategy, where he suggests that deploying more widgets may be the key to MySpace’s monetization.

There’s no doubt about it – widgets are are fast-growing area of innovation and I expect to see more companies like PostApp and Snipperoo popping up to take advantage of this trend.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/widgets_service.php))*