On Widgets and Widget Metrics

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On Widgets and Widget Metrics

by Avatar	Stumble this!	May 21st 2008

There is always a lot of talk in Web Analytics and Web Metrics in general because they are basic for everything from audience building, SEO, SEP, branding and of course advertising. lots of the new proposed models of User Engagement metrics as a way to replace pageviews (or impressions) are things that not only were took from social networking and the blogosphere but also from widgets.

This is the reason why Widgets are the new Web Marketing gold . because widget not only have the previous models in favor, the web metrics. but because they got their own specific ones that act and serve brands and marketers directly without using web metrics ( Views, Unique Visitors,, Clicks, Average Time Spent and Custom Events) as the main focus, but just as associative one.

In Widgets you got things like: grabs, placements,active placements and sessions that pretty much could be seen directly as all engagement metrics given they depend on user interaction, user direct attention and user commitment (sharing) to succeed.

And after what i think is a fitting context. to set the mood. what i want to point out to is on a Blog post from Jodi McDermott who is kindly under the moniker of “WidgetGirl”. Jodi is pretty much a Widget Analytics Academic. her background is in Web Analytics but she later put all that into Widget Analytics.

She posted a pretty Must Read post about a Conference presentation she did where she covers from the basics of widgets to the future of Widget Analytics

Standards - as many or you know, the Web Analytics Association formed a Social Media Standards committee specifically to address Social Media metric standards. Our focus is on setting definitions on metrics that may be used to measure various aspects of social media. This includes widgets, blogs, bookmarks, social networks, downloadable media, streaming media and mobile.

Integration with web analytics vendors - WA vendors can help you deduplicate your on and off domain audience so you can direct measure your reach. However, WA vendors can’t establish the spread patterns that only the widget analytics tools can measure. There is overlap in the space - but there are distinct questions that only each tool can measure.

Monetization models - how do you monetize your off domain content? Clearspring has several models to do so and more will emerge over the coming years. In-widget advertising is evolving and will be an exciting space to watch throughout 2008.

While the bit about Widget Analytics future is the grand finale of her presentation and what can serve as a good way to predict where widgets are going. everything in her post is worth reading.

Jodi is of course a little biased towards ClearSpring because they are her employer but she always retain objectivity and credibility to stand on her points. but that should still be noted. and it also should be noted that ClearSpring is a Commercial Widget Developer that is more known for promo and branded widgets so it is very geared into info displays and specific media inclusion. so obviously that is the kind of widgets Jodi focuses on this presentation. but i think the points on widget analytics reflect in everything. be them promo widgets, branded widgets or social widgets and widget-apps (purpose or multi purpose light applications nested with interaction strings in the host destination, what i often call modular widgets when talking about some in house social network, blog platform or web service widgets)

So, please go read it.

Widgets, Social Applications and RSS Feeds