There is a lot going on in the widget world, especially ours. We are increasingly busy with projects and client work. I am constantly amazed that something I considered a hobby would turn in to a little self-sustaining business.
WidgetNest is not a widget provider or a distribution service. We let other people tackle that problem. Instead, we create the widgets themselves and it has been incredibly rewarding. In fact, today I was checking out a new podcast over at CNET called The 404. I was amazed to see a little friend of mine - a multimedia player I helped make a while back for Castfire, “an enterprise class platform for podcasting and videocasting.” I spent a lot of time on that player, and it is fun to see it around the internet.
I would like to congratulate MixerCast for their new series of funding. I do not know anyone on the team over there, but I do like their work. Anyway, as I said, there is a lot going on in the widget world.
WidgetNest was contacted recently by a representative from Project White House. With them, we are making some widgets for the participating candidates which can be found on this hosted page.
For now we only have one completed, but as the candidates of Project White House complete their assigned tasks more will be made available.
It is interesting to see the Widget World (so to speak) move in the direction of branded widgets. I could have told you that it is a successful model a long time ago. In fact, I have been making branded widgets for almost two years. When I first made a Digg RSS Ticker it caught on fast. To this day, it is still one of the more visited sites I have ever made.
Branded widgets work for a number or reasons. First, they aren’t advertisements. They may work like an ad, but they aren’t, the are something that users find useful. Take for example the Digg Ticker or more recently the Brides.com widgets we have developed. People are looking for news tickers and countdown widgets already, why not add a brand to it, especially a brand that people already trust.
Second, They are more viral. Sure, you can look up Superbowl ads on YouTube, but you don’t find that same kind of attention given to punching a monkey to get more information about home loans.
Finally, the Internet has opened many doors in the realm of self expression. If I am a fan of the Seahawks (which I am, and I am bitter that they lost to Green Bay) why shouldn’t I show it on my blog, social profile, or other website. If the Seahawks offered a fan widget, I wouldn’t hesitate to put it up and express my interest in the team to others. Branded widgets allow users to show off what they like.
By the way (shameless plug warning), if you need a branded widget made, I know of a company that makes them.
I, like many people, don’t really love Internet advertising. At least not the annoying, ugly kind. There are, however, a few internet ads that are fun, informative, and useful. There are not enough of these ads. That is why we have updated the services page to include a new service - Interactive Advertising. From today forward, if you are in need of an interactive ad, please consider us as your ad developer.
This may come to a surprise to some people, but we already have experience in this field. Before WidgetNest, at least as it is known today, I had the opportunity to work with a couple different people on a unique Internet advertising campaign. The ads integrated data from the site’s RSS feed. Because the site’s major draw was its content, there was no better way to advertise the site than by using the content itself. In essence, the site did its own advertising. Those interested in the stories and articles were drawn to the site. With every site update, the ad updated itself to correspond.
There is a lot that can be done with Interactive advertising, and it can be done is a well designed, tasteful, and useful manner. No dancing people, not bouncing monkeys, just pure genius.
Brides.com just released some new countdown widgets on Widgetbox. Here is one:
And guess what? We made them! Yep, Brides.com, through Widgetbox, asked WidgetNest to help them develop some wedding countdown widgets. It was a great and fun project.
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.
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!
Dave will tell you that I like to look at stats. I like to look at stats so much he restricted my access to the widget stats! That’s all right though because I am much more productive when I don’t have access to lots of stats. Recently I was doing some research that I thought some of you might like to look at.
Wordpress has gotten a huge jump on the widget space right now as far as searches go but the others are gaining on them. Web widgets are a growing area as we find out daily here at Widget Nest.
Looks as though Widgetbox is hiring. As stated in a comment to a different post.
To your comment about job openings…Widgetbox IS GROWING! I know you
might not be looking, but I’ve got to throw out the shameless plug for
anyone that is. We’re always looking for bright, enthusiastic people
that will help grow our team and make our product even better. If
anyone is interested in a position with Widgetbox, send your resume to jobs@widgetbox.
Neat, I wish them luck in finding a good candidate. And if they are still looking next August, I might be more interested (and graduated).
I am always impressed with the excellent support we get from Widgetbox. From the very beginning, when I submitted our first widget to their service, they have been open and willing to help and give advice and suggestions.
Recently, Omar contacted me about a link issue in our RSS Scroller and Candidate Widgets. It was an easy fix but something that I hadn’t noticed before. They really are on the lookout for their users, its awesome.
If they had a job opening, and I was looking, Widgetbox seems like it would be a cool place to work. Thank you, team Widgetbox, for being so great.
By way of disclaimer, we are “Widgetbox Developers” and have a business agreement with them. That said, I really do mean everything I have told you about their service.
