News for the Week of March 25, 2007
Widgets are everywhere (on the social Web, that is)! They no longer just enhance a social networker's online "look," they add functionality. And now not just to Web pages, but to one's cellphone communications as well. Check out this week's story about Web 2.0's biggest little industry...
Widgets: Huge on the social Web
They're even more than a cottage Internet industry now. But what are they? parents might ask. Widgets are bits of code social networkers can paste into their blogs or social-site profiles, usually to add bits of multimedia interest to them. They seem to have moved well beyond mere page embellishment to having communications and advertising functions for both page owners and advertisers (in different ways).
A recent example is the Indianapolis Colts' official widget, used to promote a 2007 Superbowl tickets contest, constituted of a photo slideshow, Colts news, and links to the latest video in the team's own Web site, according to Mashable.com. It adds that "Bebo was the latest major social network to add widget support." In another post, Mashable shows how big-business widgets have become: The Colts' widget's makers, Clearspring, recently got $5.5 million in backing, "on top of $2 million raised in April 2006." It has plenty of competition, including Widgetbox, Musestorm, SpringWidgets, Pikipimp (offering make-your-own comic strips), and a new one from MyCityMate.com, the mobile city guide site. This widget sounds a little like Jaxtr (see "Mobile socializing"). It lets the profile owner show where he is physically, so page visitors can send messages from the widget to his mobile phone, and other location-specific capabilities.
Reining 'em in
Some of these third-party companies and their users are getting a little grumpy, though, because MySpace is trying to figure out how both to compete and to keep some of the more business- cannibalizing widgets under control, the New York Times reports. Specifically, the Times indicates, MySpace (which actually spawned and is a key platform for this new industry) is cracking down on widgetry that embeds third-party advertising and shopping carts that enable profile owners to sell goods. Fairly predictably, some widget providers complained to the Times that MySpace is in this way "undercutting the notion that [its users] have complete creative freedom." Meanwhile, MySpace parent Fox Interactive itself is in the biz, with Spring Widget, which helps developers create widgets for computer desktops and social sites.
Mobile widgets
They're just beginning to multiply like rabbits. For examples, see "A practical Internet for your phone" at MIT's Technology review and the HTLounge blog about phone-widget startup Mobio. Wireless Week reports on Microsoft-backed ZenZui phone browser with widgets. For more on the Web sort, see "Embellishing their pages" and "Grownups embellishing too" in NetFamilyNews.
In other news...
- "Think Before You Post." The US Justice Department, National Center for Missing Exploited Children, and Ad Council just launched a new phase of their media campaign to raise public awareness about exploitation of online teens, Government Technology magazine reports. The article cites a news study by Cox Communications showing that 61% of 13-to-17-year-olds have a personal profile on social networking sites; half of them "have posted pictures of themselves online"; 20% of them say it is "somewhat safe" or "very safe" to share personal info on a public blog or profile; and 37% say "they're not very concerned or not at all concerned about someone using personal information they've posted online in ways they haven't approved."
- File-sharing students' settlements. Some 18,000 file-sharers have been sued by the recording industry trade association (RIAA) so far, about 1,000 of them university students, the Associated Press reports. The RIAA offers the students settlements that can cost them as much as $3,000. It "sent letters offering discounted settlements to 400 computer users at 13 universities in late February," with 116 settlements having been reached so far. The RIAA sent another such batch of letters out this week. The letters can be scary, so it's no surprise students settle. "A letter to one Ohio University student told her that she distributed 787 audio files, putting her total minimum potential liability at more than $590,000."
- Online video stars. Winners of the first-annual YouTube awards included videos of "Chicago band OK Go dancing across treadmills," a Sydney man hugging strangers in the street, and "an animated video about a kiwi bird trying to fly," Reuters reports. Categories included "Most Adorable," "Best Commentary," and Most Inspirational," and "Best Comedy," and Reuters lists the winner in each.
- Parochial school bans MySpace. Students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic school in the Detroit area have to take down their MySpace comments and profiles or risk suspension, the Detroit News reports. "The school plans to use its computer-savvy staff members to monitor the site for student activity." The News quotes a mother of St. Hugo students as saying she unequivocally agrees. It quotes a professor as saying the policy may give parents a false sense of security. I'd say so, if the policy only concerns a single social-networking site among the thousands out there (Ning.com alone says it hosts 33,000 individuals' social-networking sites). The last parochial school banning of this kind I've heard was that of Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta, N.J. in 2005 (see this item).
- Driving-while-texting ban? Washington State is considering a ban on driving while texting, and "at least three other" states are too, CBS NEWS reports. Washington's House of Representatives voted yes on the ban, following, "among other things, a December pileup that shut down a Seattle highway for more than an hour. Police blame a driver who was using his BlackBerry."
