it was had proved to be a very active week for the Digital Document space. scribd received a full design revamp that even included a logo change. the new design has already proved to be a blessing and the confirmation that they were right to change the design. i also happen to like the logo very minimalistic and subtle feel. but it did reminded me a little bit of the picasa logo:
but unlike picasa, scribd has proved from the start it is a great service. so the similarities are just coincidence or great minds thinking alike.
The new redesign should give scribd the edge it needs against the growing competition in the space that this week saw Zoho as a new adversary and as a way to stay ahead of DocStoc. its main competition. this space is going to continue growing and getting more and more interesting because Digital Documents are truly they way of the future. that is reason alone to cover it. the main reason is that widgets will be integral part of its future too.
Friendfeed had a little revamp this week and it has generated quite a lot of buzz around the net. mostly from the early adopters that form the active crowd using it. when friendfeed launched it was not really anything exciting to me because it was no more than a aggregator with interaction. the updates that have gone through from then to now summed up with this recent mini-revamping finally shape Friendfeed into something worthwhile of attention. i am not entirely convinced it could go mainstream in the short term. but i do see it as good fit for going mainstream in the long term. maybe by late 2009 or early 2010. right now it is more than likely to remain something that only a 10% may be able to use effectively. if anyone doubt such argument. i then must remind everyone that Twitter. the main utility friendfeed feeds from and that is at least three times more popular is not close to break into the mainstream yet
Even then. the new changes look to be just the push i needed to make me use Friendfeed and i will be paying more attention to it more closely.
Along with a new look at tweaks. the latest friendfeed update al brought Friendfeed Widgets with it:
FriendFeed Badge
The Friendfeed badge is basically a Friendfeed User ID Card. but depending how you use it. you can also make it a unbranded ID card or Social Card if you want to. that is because you have the options to customize your widget and decide how you want it to look by removing elements from it and choosing the size you want it too. as a example i made mine more minimalistic.
It is a JavaScript widget badge so that means is best suited for blogs and it also carries a option for further customization via CSS.
One final interesting note is that Friendfeed is giving out special support to Blogger. i would not be surprised at all if Friendfeed happened to offer Google Connect support later too. the ties of the FriendFeed team with Google continue to be quite strong. something to pay special attention too in my opinion.
A Friendfeed share link button or bookmarklet for Blogs that come in HTML or in JavaScript flavor. the first one is a quick sharing loader and the second one is a bookmarklet so it allows you to edit before sharing.
The Share Link Button comes with direct support for Blogger and Wordpress blogs only.this don`t means it cannot work elsewhere. just that you cannot blame them if it don`t works properly.
The main offering from FriendFeed is its Feed Widget. it carries around a river of notes from your your friendfeed account and it can show up as many as 10 at a time. you can also filter the services in the case you want it to just display updates from one service only.it can also load the notes from the FriendFeed Room you own or are subscribed to. this makes it a useful widget for the services supported by FriendFeed or for following the notes in your favorite FriendFeed room. just like with the Badge. you can also remove whatever you don`t want to show up in the widget design and if you want to make your own customization to it. you can choose to do so by using the advanced CSS option for it. this is the widget that was previously offered unsupported before and the changes it presents is that it now can offer you size customization, it sports the new friendfeed look and it comes with the promo footer so people can easily view your friendfeed page or subscribe to you in a click if the are logged into the service. it is a good widget but the selection to be only able to check up to 10 items makes it limited if you happen to be very active. for a up to 30 items version just like in your FriendFeed page you will have to use the Embeddable FriendFeed Lifestream widget instead.
Given this is Friendfeed main offering i would have liked a Flash version that would allow you to reply directly to the items. or if they offered a special iframe widget version of friendfeed that could make friendfeed a portable experience.
A chiclet, not the one i was expecting but one nonetheless. this is only a HTML link button so you can promote yourself wherever you want. i would have liked a Followers Friendfeed Chiclet option too. maybe later or maybe sooner from a third party. we will see.
The Friendfeed Status Badge is no more than a restricted version of the Friendfedd Feed Widget. it only loads updates from your Friendfeed Account and it only show one of them at a time. recommended only for the more casual users or to use it for a specific Friendfeed Supported service.
There you have it. these are the official widgets from Friendfeed and lets hope they are not the last and that they add more robust versions or more of them as they update the service.
Being able to do a tweet or check your Twitter account will now be possible too for SideShow enabled devices or maybe even if you are running the Windows Mobile SideShow Beta thanks to this fully featured Twitter SideShow Gadget:
The Twitter Gadget from Ikanos Consulting allows you to set your Twitter status, check up on your friends, and dig into friends’ timelines, all from your Windows SideShow(tm) device. Features include status settings, friend pictures, friend timelines and status pre-sets. This is not a Sidebar gadget. It is for Windows (r) SideShow (r) devices only.
If you happen to be one of those rocking out with SideShow Gadgets. then this is a must have.
Proving that YouTube is the hardest bast to tame. Google brings even more experimentation to it with by trying new ad campaigns and by starting the testing of its close captioning tech. both of them are quite lame so far. the close captioning reminds me to the ones that comes by default in a TV for those with hearing impaired. maybe that is the excuse. but this could the exact clue of why Google bought Omnisio less than a month ago.
Because there is no such thing as too many Twitter widgets. AddTweets is a very simple and basic JavaScript Latest Tweets Twitter Badge Generator for you Blog Sidebar. you can show from one to ten of you latest tweets. given how it integrates and how truly basic it is because there is close to no look at all. it should only recommended for blog where it makes sense aesthetically.
In the photo you can see what your customizing options are and they are just about how the text renders. nothing much than that. still a simple and effective tool for anyone that is looking for a twitter badge and don`t mind it to be in JavaScript. my only complaint with it is that there should be some skins. since you are going to place a script in your page. it should reward you with something better looking. otherwise a active photo badge may be a better choice.
First things first. i am covering this story with a double interest. i am interested in the news but i am also interested in clearing up a very fun and even amusing confusion some of our readers had with this story. some thought that widgets lab had something to do with Widgetlaboratory because of the very similar name. so, without further delay i assure you that Widgets Lab DO NOT have anything to do with Widgetlaboratory beyond the name similarities. we also want to remind anyone that Widgets Lab was started before WidgetLaboratory if any also had a doubt about that.
The Players
As with any conflict worth covering, there is always two sides to the story. at one side we have Widgetlaboratory. they were a Widget and Widget-app developer for the Ning Platform. they provided all kinds of widgets and widget-apps to Ning users. at the other side we got NIng. They are a social network platform and social networks ecosystem where anyone can easily create its own Social Network .
The Story
ACT 1:“Everyone want to root for the underdog”
It started with a bang and lots of appeal. so much that Techcrunch decided to give it a premium coverage treatment. i cannot blame them. the basis of the story was that a poor widget developer, in this case Widgetlaboratory was being abused by Ning, who decided in a envious burst of irrational ire to shutdown said widget developer out of the blue and with that also bring down lots of widgets that died and went to widgets heaven. sure hits and comments would surely ensue, they did.
Then, just when you thought things will pass Widgetlaboratory decided to do something in retaliation to go Open Source, so the code they used to serve for Ning users would be able to live again and previous widgets used and Ning could resurrect. and if Ning didn`t liked the code being served by Widgetlaboratory. now they would be surely mad to have to deal with it without being able to do much against widgetlaboratory anymore.
Finally. things cleared out and it resulted that the victim was no victim,. that the killer was no killer, and that all we had believed in was just a mirage that faded and revealed some very simple truths that would not make anyone excited at all.
Just like when you watch a movie. seeing it again makes you look at it differently. and in a lot of cases you end up realizing that it was not a good movie at all.
So what happened in resume is this:
1.-Widgetlaboratory breaks the terms and rules of Ning house
2.-Ning asks widgetlaboratory to please knock it off
3.-Widgetlaboratory ignores Ning
3.-Ning yells at widgetlaboratory to please knock it off
4.-Widgetlaboratory ignores Ning
5.-Ning is not pleased and kicks out Widgetlaboratory out to the street, throws its things out too
6.-Widgetlaboratory swears revenge and incites others living in Ning house to revolt
7.-Ning puts up a message in the fridge that says that if others copy Widgetlaboratory behavior they will be thrown out too and maybe without warning.
8.-Everyone at Ning house wonders about if this is fair but decide to do nothing for the moment
9.-Widgetlaboratory admits defeat and finally stops wandering ning house trying to get in
10.-Ning tries to pretend nothing happened but shows signs of stress and getting old
*the analogy should only be used as guide of what happened, not a absolute truth of what happened*
The even shorter version
It looks like if you are a successful Widget developer that depends on a sole platform you don`t control as your way of living don`t assures you will be able to continue if the owner of the platform gets mad with you because you may have been breaking the terms of service in that platform.
What is next?
Ning will continue in its quest to thrive and offer social networks for anyone that want them. Widgetlaboratory will have to adjust and try to rethink what they want to do. this does serve as a very fine example that you must have a failsafe if you are a developer that depends on one single platform. it also shows that it is a good idea to develop for more than one platform. i would recommend them to simply have a look at OpenSocial. their knowledge on Social Networks should allow them to do good enough in that. Widgets and widget-apps will continue to be interesting market to be in and from what i have learned in the time i have been covering widgets. there is lot of room to grow and evolve yet.
Hi5 last report about its 2008 outlook was quite positive since it showed a surge in growth and user engagement. widgetbox on his own regard launched its Widget Custom Galleries offering as a way to evolve and extend distribution of widgets beyond the widgetbox site and into Social Networks or pretty much any site that wants to do so. the more integrated version of said custom widget galleries were reserved for partnerships or special deals.
hi5 decided to give Widgetbox custom galleries a try. but widgetbox may have looked at a opportunity and a partnership was then formed. the deal gives hi5 a more integrated version widgetbox custom galleries and it gives hi5 the chance to allow OpenSocial widget and widget-app developers that are using hi5 for their Widgets and widget-app as a springboard for distribution thanks to this deal with Widgetbox.
If hi5 is to be believed, there have been at least 2 million widgetbox widget added to hi5 and that has resulted in 65,000 subscription to widgets. the clarity of what exactly does these numbers mean slightly eludes me. if a hi5 representative would like to clear them up for me i would gladly update his post.
in the end it is quite a good set of deals for both hi5 and widgetbox. widgetbox assures growth along reach and influence gains for their Widget Distribution network by partnering with the most promising in terms of growth Social Network and hi5 gains even more ways to ensure engagement not only from its users but also from the developers that take a chance with hi5 and its OpenSocial based platform. the most interesting widget the hi5 platform has produced so far is the pixverse pixchat widget, which was so good in hi5 eyes that they ended up acquiring it almost two months ago.
Zoho surely not stops surprising me. they must be one the most daring companies around today. they are in the hardest spot you could be in and yet they continue to raise the bet. that is not only daring but also a little crazy. Zoho as some, if not most of you know is the Google Docs competitor.
Zoho produces what i consider the best and most complete Web Office Suite. it is way superior and more broad than Google Docs. so much that they not only say they compete with Google but are crazy enough to try to aim at the unbeatable Microsoft Office division Google itself among big companies like Sun, Apple,Adobe and many other have failed miserably to unsettle. yet Zoho believe they can compete. they are of course wrong in the case of going against Microsoft. but they do have a nice chance of unsettling Google and Adobe. Adobe is already prepping up its own vision on what a Web Office Suite should do. Google Docs is already dominating this space and Google takes very seriously the threat of Adobe and Zoho to their own solution that aims to hurt Microsoft. the dilemma here is that it will be even less possible for any of them to challenge Office since a competition war between the alternatives to Microsoft is already brewing.
Zoho Share on the other hand aims to the Digital Document space. a space that is actually dominated by independent companies like Scribd and DocStoc. a space where Adobe recently entered with Adobe Share and where they are actually the underdog. the entrance of the Web Office Suites into this space was to be expected, and it is something i said back at the start of the year when i commented on one a Scribd initiative.:
This initiative is a good way too for scribd to increase their footprint and their brand. and boy if they need it. as i already said. this space is going to get worse for them with Google Docs, Adobe Share and Office Live natural progression into this space in a way it will not leave many Startups able to compete with them. scribd truly wants to be the company left standing in case they don`t get acquired and also in case other competitors in their space survive.
Later on the Adobe Share update happened, several Google Docs updates went underway and now this unexpected entry by Zoho confirms it. i wonder how long it will take for Google to follow suite now that they are quite late to the party.
Zoho Share Digital Document Embeddables and viewer are actually quite poor. but Zoho is known for evolving fast and they now got a foot in. so l expect them to evolve fast and offer something more akin to what docstoc does instead of scribd. the site in itself is actually good already and should prove a very great addition to those already using the Zoho Office Suite and a good way to persuade more people to try them instead of Google Docs.
Yahoo mobile is now offering a widget for Nokia S60 phones. this is the oneSearch mobile widget and its function is to integrate in the phone home screen as a search launcher so you can quickly search without effort and right away. the widget also got search suggest to make it even faster an easy. the only requisite is of course you choosing Yahoo as your preferred mobile search engine.
I like the idea behind Iterasi. i like the way it works and what can be used for.iterasi is a bookmarking service that not only stores the link of the site you bookmark, but the site itself in the state it was wen you found it. it captures it in time for you to revisit exactly like when you first found it. they have now added mac support and a time scheduler.
In terms of Widgets, iterasi got a very very basic set of offferings:
Iterasi Public Page Badge
A simple way to share the active linked preview screenshot of a Iterasi saved page you can use for a posts or for a sidebar in a blog.
Iterasi Public Pages Widget Badge
Extremely basic iframe widget badge that looks like a BlogRoll for your saved public pages.
What could be next?
Given the recent craze for digital documents and the dynamic boorkmarking iterasi does. it would be great if they added a Public Page viewer widget. even in a iframe so you could make the iterasi experience truly portable. a saved page that could behave just like a digital document would be a nice evolution for something like iterasi.
Four months ago, Pageflakes, the independent StartPage startup that trailed against Netvibes was acquired by Media Company LiveUniverse , this brought me to the conclusion that we should see a Media Integrated Startpage pageflakes revamp coming from LiveUniverse. this has not happened yet. but the recent resignation of Dan Cohen, previous owner and CEO of pageflakes could indicate that the integration of pageflakes to LiveUniverse is now complete and pageflakes news should follow soon enough. lets hope for that.
It was about time!. Flickr finally released a official Slide Show Widget. pass solutions have been embedding the regular Flickr Flash Slide Show into an iFrame. something that many used to do because they wanted an official Flickr SlideShow widget instead of third party solutions that server their own widgets and that there are many to choose from.
The Look
The new Flickr SlideShow Widget sports a look redesign very much at home with the Flickr Video Player. this is of course a good thing since it is a really cool design. the design for it as many know was ripped off directly from Vimeo. the design i still considerate to be one of the best video player designs ever. Flickr version of this design is of course as good as the original and they extended it into the Flickr SlideShow Embeddable Widget with great results.
The Design
The New Flickr Widget is done in flash and it shows how a photo slide show widget should not only look but how it should work. it got a hover activated preview thumbnails bar for navigation and it offers a little snapshot preview when you hover on the preview thumbnails. it got prev and next indicators in the main view screen too.
The Experience
The Best thing about it is that it is not just a SlideShow Widget, but a actual Multi Media Player Widget and you can play the flickr videos in the photostream. it comes with a full screen with controls option right in the widget. what i think is a total must have now because it makes it a truly portable experience. the widget also shows a very prominent and easy to see “share” option that gives you the URL for the Photostream and the embed code for the widget. so it is fully capable of serving quick sharing. this is of course a standard and it should not only be expected but demanded as the bare minimum a widget of ANY kind should have. the fact that it is flash already states by itself that it can be put almost anywhere.
Conclusion
The New Embeddable SlideShow Widget from Flcikr is without a doubt one of the best Slide Show Widgets ever done. it looks incredible. it got a excellent User Interface and User Experience. i think that the only things i could nitpick at it, would be the fact that it should already come with a High Spread Sharing module within the Widget instead of just Quick Sharing. that the transition to Full Screen is not swift and that the performance while at Full Screen downgrades significantly. this is of course not Flickr fault since it is more a thing of the common shortcomings Flash still has. it would be truly interesting to me to see a recreating of this Widget in Silverlight and see how the experiences compare. that alone would be a good way to get into developing a widget.
Other than those 3 little details, the widget is truly great.
Looks like Yahoo is thinking into the future for its Widget biz and has decided that TV Widgets will be something not only doable but worth of their attention. they have now announced that they will collaborate with Intel to bring a Widgets Channel to Internet Enabled TV`s in the not so distant future. this widget channel will be totally feasible thanks to the fact that these Internet enabled TV will support not only HTML and XML but also JavaScript and even Flash.
While this looks to come out of nowhere. it is not at all random. it was meant to happen and it is a logical evolution for Yahoo and Intel. this collaboration is not truly visionary either since it already responds to something. that something would be what Top Box providers have been thinking in doing for the last 2 years but have been unable to do so in a effective way. but it is not just Top Box providers trying to do this. it is also hardware tech companies like Samsung who is putting a lot of interest in Widgets, Widgetization and Widgetized UI/UX lately. they also announced that they will be putting widgets into TV`s via a MediaExtender called MediaLive. Something there is no doubt is that other hardware companies will follow now that Yahoo and Intel has announced this. There is also the fact that Microsoft plans something similar with multiple Widget (gadgets in case MS) Technologies that will get into several devices. but in the case of TV`s. it is something that would be easy to adopt for the upcoming Mediaroom. MSFT evolution in IPTV services and where they may also have an ace by using Silverlight to provide it if they wanted it.
Widgets on my TV?
As with any new technology. it is hard to think on this being useful now. that is of course because right now it is not really possible in mainstream terms. but 2010 is the limit line for full digital TV adoption worldwide and TV continues to get not only more powerful and bigger. but also cheaper. that makes the shift for this tech easy to do because while you may rock a 30 inch regular widescreen tv in your living room. right now from 2010 and up the less you will want to get is going to be 50 inches and up in cinematic widescreen that will happen to be not only HD and fully digital but Internet enabled. Widgets don`t sound so out of place then uh?.
Last year, an obscure federal panel ordered a doubling of the per-song performance royalty that Web radio stations pay to performers and record companies.
Traditional radio, by contrast, pays no such fee. Satellite radio pays a fee but at a less onerous rate, at least by some measures.
I am very very sorry for the interruption of posting. unfortunately i got severely screwed up by my ISP and i am writing you this from 56k Hell. quite a bad time for it, considering Widgets News are piling up and there is much for me to cover under Widgets Lab perspective as always. i have been in 56k hell for over 30 hrs now but lets hope i will be able to return in the coming hrs and work hard to catch up.
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