Wow, its been a hectic month. Between school, work, and widget development, things have been pretty crazy. The good news is that once the holidays are over things should return back to some state of “normal.” Other good news is that I got to work with Java a lot this last semester and I can honestly say that I think it is great. For my final project I got to make a client/server application and it pretty much rocks.

But what does that have to do with widgets? Well, I learned a lot more about coding and design patterns and I am sure they will help with future widget development. In fact, we plan on announcing some things around the new year that are pretty exciting.

Stay tuned, and happy holidays.

There are two things that happen every once and a while around the WidgetNest “office” :

1) We ask ourselves how we can make more money

2) We come up with a cool idea that is in no way related to widgets, or, at times, the internet.

Just recently, we decided that maybe combining those two things would create something wonderful. We are now selling random items through Cafe Press. (We know Cafe Press it is not the best option, so we are open to other ideas) Our first product is a greeting card, perfect for Valentine’s day. Here is a preview image:

So, if you have ever wanted to show support for WidgetNest, now you can do so and get something in return. Amazing!

Widget Hosting

We now offer widget hosting. We have had several requests for this from people that did not have their own hosting options. Until now we have not been able to fulfill their requests. We are glad to announce that now we can offer widget hosting, powered by our host - 1&1

Branded Pages

Another service we are please to announce is Branded Pages. Now along with building custom widgets we can also make custom distribution platforms that allow users to embed the widget on to their website. The benefits of this are that we can keep the code up to date and that the page will still reflect our clients page design and branding.

Widget Management

Finally, we are now offering widget management. Say you wanted a widget that could display quotes or some other content that needs to be updated regularly. Now we can provide our clients with administrative accounts for their widgets, enabling them to keep their content up to date without having to worry about maintain the back end. Because we also make the widgets, we can be sure to streamline the entire experience.

Its taken way to long but finally our services page has been update. Take a look!

Team WidgetNest is happy to annouce that we have chosen Widgetbox as our exclusive distribution partner. Using the Widgetbox system will help us to focus on widget development and not have to worry about integrating in to different platforms. Our widgets will be available anywhere Widgetbox widgets can go, which is a lot of places. In light of this partnership, we have updated our site to reflect the change. Now each widget page provides a link to the proper page on Widgetbox where a user can get their widget.

We are looking forward to working with Widgetbox and we are excited by this unique opportunity.

Not that there are very many people that read this blog (yet), but we will be updating our site tonight and making a few announcements as well. Until then, take care.

-Team WidgetNest