Jaman.com is the maker of something called CinemaSlots.

CinemaSlots is a slot machine for movie trailers.

Click the “spin” button, listen to the slot machine jingle and wait for your trailer to appear. then click it to watch it.

Whats your opinion of this widget?

CinemaSlots

MyVGift.com is a new widget that allows the user to receive “Virtual” gifts from any visitor to their page.

How it works:
Anyone that wishes to leave you a gift can simply choose from the thousands (millions?) of items in the Amazon.com catalog.

The MyVGift.com site provides an easy to use Amazon search that gives you category and keyword options, helping to narrow down to that perfect gift. And best of all, you don’t have to leave MyVGift to search. It’s all done right on-site.

Once you find the gift you want to give, add it via the little icon on the far right and then customize it with a little note and your name (optional for Anonymous giving)

Each gift links to its respective Amazon.com page…in case you want to actually buy one.

The widget install:
Grabbing this widget and adding it to your blog or page is as simple as 1-2-3.
1. pick your style (Vertical or Horizontal)
2. pick your color (16 million colors I believe. With Hex option)
3. Either copy the code (to paste) or enter your login info for over 20 different social pages and blog platforms.

“The only virtual gift widget on the web that works on multiple social platforms:
Friendster, Facebook, Orkut, Bebo, Tagged, Blogger, Hi5, LiveSpaces, Piczo, Freewebs, LiveJournal, BlackPlanet, MyYearbook, Wordpress, Vox, TypePad, Xanza, Multiply, iGoogle, NetVibes, Pageflakes, MiGente, and others.”

Try it:
I’ve added the MyVGift widget to the sidebar. Feel free to give a “Virtual” gift to widgets lab. You’ll find it very easy to use. Heck…give two gifts! Christmas time is just around the corner.

MyVGift.com

There is a lot of craziness with Widgets competing for Social Bookmarking and Quick Content Sharing. the most notable examples are of course the now Clearspring Owned AddThis  versus ShareThis. But the third biggest player that is  addtoany is not interested in that fight because they are not at the level to fight it . but they will give their best to keep a close 3rd place and not let other services surpass them or to risk losing users. in spirit to that. they have been updating their offerings with new features and a new look:

• Visual update (tabs!)
• Digg counts (real-time!)
• Delicious counts (real-time!)
• E-mail made faster/easier
• Prioritize services
• In-widget browser bookmarking instructions (for non-IE browsers)
• More publisher options

Live Counter are not a new thing. they can be traced back to feedburner with their feedflares and to mid 2008 with ShareThis as they started exploring the idea. a new integrated plugin for addtoany for Wordpress should be out any minute now unless they delay it until wordpress 2.7 is out.

A more detailed rundown of what has changed and how can be read at AddToAny Blog.

Now the question is if this will be enough to stay at a close third to Addthis/Sharethis?. the answer is yes. AddToAny already got metrics, brand awareness and it is a proven widget. now they got a better look and up to date features. so there is no reason for them to not continue to do well.

If you are looking for another option on what to choose for your blog when it comes to Social Bookmarking and Quick Content Sharing.  AddToAny is a good choice.

AddToAny

Widgets Lab is fine. and i am actually amazed that it not only sustained while i was not here but that it actually grew in terms of readers. i had to take a week off for some personal matters but i will start catching up hopefully today or this Weekend and we should be back at full speed from Monday on. 

Thank for your messages.

-Avatar

Take this post as a simple “craving” and “gadget envy” related to widgets because it runs WM and it got TouchWIZ of course. but seriously.  i talked about T*Omnia getting insane features. this one enters into that category and it will be out this year over there:

The T*Omnia, also to be knows as the SCH-M490 with 4GB and SCH-M495 with 16GB of internal memory, features the same improved 3.3-inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) touchscreen ,a mobile TV receiver with satellite DMB rather than one-seg receiver that is used in Japan, a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and image stabilizer, WiFi, GPS, HSDPA, and Bluetooth support.

It is really insane stuff. for example you can have it with a 16gb SSD and add a 8gb MSD and have a 24gbs in your WM 6.1 that happens to have everything and even sports Satellite DMB TV and since it is Korea you can also have Teleconference Video Calls if you want to.. neat uh?

Samsung T*Omnia via WMexperts

Nokia got some very hardcore fans. and they also got hardcore fan that like Widgets. If you got a Nokia Internet Tablet and you miss your Google Gadgets. then you will be happy to know they have been ported to it.

Now you can have your Google Gadgets living with regular native maemo Widgets. not that you would know because from what i read they are not very good. so having some actually good Widgets is just what you was lacking and now you can have that.

Take a look

Google Gadgets for maemo (yes, this is a Linux Thing)

via Ars Technica

RockYou truly baffles me now. they have raised yet another $17 million in funding from Softbank. one of the biggest Japanese Companies you can take money from and now looks to set its mind not only in social network game widgets but Mobile and Desktop Widgets for Asia?.

WOW. that is really bold and if Softbank put money into them. then they must have something truly going on. with this new funding round they have now outpaced their eternal competitor Slide for the moment in terms of ambitions and scope. lets hope they do manage to deliver something tangible for the sake of Widgets. because now they have raised  $67 million dlls!. crazy amount for a Widget Startup (if we can call them that anymore…) that aim to be a big Company.

RockYou

via Mashable

If you where one of those that liked the Google Gadgets For Gmail idea and wondered where you could get a To-Do List Gadget to put into Gmail. then you need the Remember The Milk To-Do List Gadget for Gmail. it is the very best you can ask for since RTM whole focus is on making good TO-DO Lists web apps and Widgets.

Here is what it will let you do:

Review your upcoming tasks for the week
Add new tasks and edit existing ones
Easily complete and postpone tasks
Review your overdue tasks
Optionally show tasks with no due date
Display tasks from a particular list or Smart List

Perfect if you live in your E-mail or it is the first and the last thing you do online. the explanations on how to get it can be seen in this post from the RTM blog:

RTM + Gmail gadget goodness

You can get the Google Gmail Gadget here

Remember The Milk To-Do List Gmail Gadget

Remember The Milk

via TC

How do you make sure you take advantage of your company momentum?. You squeeze it and try to make sure you don`t slow down and that momentum turns into your regular speed until you can have another one. Gigya want that. so they changed CEO`s. Eyal Magen. the formal CEO and co-founder will be now the CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) and the new CEO charge will be occupied by David Yovanno. former COO (Chief Operating Officer) of ValueClick. a Online Marketing company.

Makes total sense when you have in consideration that what  gigya do is distribute and market widgets right?. right. but gigya has already said they want to go for the gold and they see gold in Website and Blogs Automatic Socialization. this done by widgets and Widgetization and in the case of gigya. that would be the reason for Gigya Socialize to exist.  a Widget to Leverage Social Graphs into websites and blogs in order for you to make your online property enhanced with social and interactive features.

So, welcome to the new gigya CEO into this crazy space that is Widgets. but since he comes from Online Marketing. Crazy must be the norm. looks like a great fit.

For more into this. Venture Beat got the the goods.

Gigya

Widget maker Gigya appoints ValueClick executive as CEO via VentureBeat

I am not surprised Blogrush failed. it took a very common idea tried by lots of other Widgets and Badges with some notable exceptions. took it into the market without any clue you could find on how it was going to be monetized. or how exactly it worked or what criteria it followed. Derek wrote about it two times and in one of them  was about they removing thousands of spam blogs or bad blogs (bad content, illegal, porn,etc)  in the network. the problem was that they removed hundreds of legit blogs in the process and pissed a lot of people.

I remember we used it for a little while and it generated a good amount of traffic into the site BEFORE they removed the bad blogs and after they removed them it gave close to nothing. how is that for irony?. something reported also by other users.

They also had some strange guidelines. Widgets Lab was never rejected (we are loved) but it don`t worked right. but other bloggers like Mircea Goia  got their totally legit blogs rejected (and he seems to be such a nice guy, ok, not really) . if that is not strange. then i don`t know what is. this also pissed off other people. (no, not us. were are way too good and caring)

Then comes the truly strange. the widget ended up costing (allegedly) a lot of money to its creator John Reese. when he announced he was closing shop. he got offers to buy it from his hands. something that may or may not have recovered him all he expended but that sure would have been some nice money to have. so why he don`t sells?.

• A) He got a Jerry Yang Complex
• B) There is something shady about Blogrush
• C)He is super rich and eccentric
• D)All of the Above

That is something only he knows. but it does feel weird. but a little advice to anyone going for that model. don`t launch unless you are sure what you are doing. do thing in a transparent way and have a monetization plan in advance.

If you were one of Blogrush users. i would recommend you to use Criteo or Entrecard if you want to replace that widget with something similar. if anyone got another suggestion. leave a comment.

via TheNextWeb (by Micea Goia)

No. Not us. they are another thing entirely. if you are confused. i exhort you to read on it in this post

I am glad to see WidgetLaboratory, the Social Network Widgetdeveloper previously based on Ning is back on its feet with SocialGo. SocialGo is one of Ning Competitors and some say it is the most promising one from the bunch. i guess that WidgetLaboratory new partnership or agreement gives them some extra points. after all. they know Ning very well. you could say they know it inside out. this of course a knowledge and tech deal. the kind of Knowledge they got on Ning will be extremely useful for SocialGO to build on. WidgetLaboratory on the other hand can simply apply what they already now in order to adapt quickly to SocialGO and model how Widgets or Widget-apps should work in SocialGO. so both of them win. Widgetlaboratory fight with Ning was quite of a deal to Ning. after all. They were their Prime Widget and Widget-app developer and as they got more leverage it was obvious that Ning got nervous and started to pick on them and put them into a entrapment. this caused Ning to say “the hell with it, this is not going to happen again”. so they went with a OpenSocial Approach. coincidence?. sure. sure. (not).

Many will wonder why i post on this. well. i enjoy entertaining feuds. this is certainly one.  a good example of bad blood is some poking from Widgetlaboratory CEO Spencer Forman towards Ning when the story was covered in Techcrunch:

Good Morning,

The LAB was created on Ning for the purpose of showing how to make money through social networking. We feel that our own “flavor” of unique products, service, and sometimes shocking honesty is what catapulted us into the position of having such wonderful success on their platform. We are unrepentant as to anything we’ve accomplished, said or done since we started this adventure in November of 2007. Obviously this comes at the price of being a polarizing force for those who know and love Ning.

At this time, we are thrilled to be in a new home that has actually allowed us to do what we do best, instead of fighting us step by step along the way. Although we stand by our legal and ethical position for the events that went down this summer with Ning, that’s old news. Ning has chosen to take an entirely new path for themselves that is unrelated to what they started in 2006, and it can be seen and judged by anyone who cares to inquire. There is nothing stopping anyone from using more than one platform for more than one goal.

And that is our point. WidgetLaboratory was always about showing people how to MONETIZE their social network. Our customers were able to make several hundred dollars or more per month in net profit from tools they purchased from us for as little as $19.00. SocialGO “gets” this, and WidgetLaboratory will prove it to anyone that is interested in moving out of the Social Networking version 1.0 mode and into the version 2.0 mode… where micro-economies can exist between people with similar interests through the use of scalable and modular products that enable commerce, barter, marketing, advertising, etc.

We think it’s wonderful that TechCrunch has chosen to feature us for another brief moment in time. We love even more the fact that the author has made it very clear in the first paragraph that we are liars and idiots. We’re pretty sure that this will generate a reasonable number of comments by the readers as to what Ning has done since WidgetLaboratory was kicked off the platform. As a former litigator myself, I was surprised that Mr. Arrington chose to give his legal opinions in his previous article back in August, as I didn’t think TC was about making legal conclusions as much as publishing facts. Nevertheless, I was glad that he did. The readers comments expressed a balanced opinion of why there might have been a reasonable legal and strategic reason for airing this inside communication, and they also pointed out certain potential conflicts of interest involving TC50 and Marc Andreessen.

Either way, time will demonstrate which company had the right business model, and which company respected the true demand in the marketplace for what people need to do in order to build a financially successful social network. The entire SocialGO platform will be underpinned with a rock-solid Bill of Rights for Network Creators that ensures them legally of complete and total control (in fact) over their members, network, and data. It is worth noting how Ning has subsequently changed all of their legal terms in a way that removes NC rights instead of creating or enforcing new ones.

There is plenty of room for fun Kung-Fu-Poke-Me Open Social Gadgets on Ning, while SocialGO and the LAB focus on building productivity and monetization products for entrepreneurs and small business.

We say… let the consumer try each and judge for themselves which one meets their needs.

Spencer Forman
CEO
WidgetLaboratory

It is not that delightful?. i will save my comments on all this beyond what i wrote above. but as i said i am glad they landed on their feed because the healthly the Widget Space is the better and that is a interest a blog like this is guilty of having.

Widgetlaboratory

SocialGO

via TC

If you got a Windows Mobile 6 or 6.1 and your are based in the U.S.A. then you deserve yourself the favor to try out the Skyfire Browser new release. i would do so if i could. this is the same Mobile Browser that comes with full RIA web support. that is Flash/Flex/Silverlight 1 & 2 so you can browse and enjoy of all the cool content around. that means all your widgets everywhere online. i do wonder if you are even able to see Netflix Watch Instantly (silverlight 2) with it?. it is likely. so what you are waiting for to try it out?.

Skyfire 0.8

Google celebrated 10 years from is inception this year and  with that milestone came other milestones like the 8 years of  the Google Toolbar. a Google product/service that has proven to be more important to the increase in marketshare of Google that pretty much any other Google service so far. the google toolbar was how the company made inroads into the market by introducing Google search and google services for users. without it and the strong push they did of it. i doubt you would have the same prominent Google of today. it is also a good way to take a look at what where the priorities of enhanced browsing back then and what they are now. what where the priorities of Google back then and what priorities it got now.

It turns out one of those current priorities are Google Gadgets and Gadgetization.  we have seen Google putting Gadgets/Widgets as the  front to archive a more pervasive mindshare and make inroad in terms of marketshare for their services. from Google Desktop, to iGoogle and even now in Gmail. the news of Gadgets in the Google Toolbar is not a recent news but with the 8 year anniversary. IE got the final version of the Google Toolbar 5 and now it officially states to bring you the following new features:

- Add gadgets to your Toolbar to bring content from your favorite websites closer to you
- Synchronize your settings online to access your Toolbar from wherever you are
- Create multiple profiles in AutoFill to keep your business and personal information separate

Info Widgets as part of the browser is something that we will see as a mainstream thing now that IE8 comes with WebSlices  and while something like that came with the IE Google Toolbar beta that was released last year. info widgets for the browser is an idea that should be noted to the Opera Browser and that Google added into the toolbar because they already knew what Microsoft was planning for IE8 .so they added the feature in advance. something Google does with everything that other companies don`t put properly under wraps. a example is the extreme pillage Google Chrome does of all browsers but specially over the Opera Browser.

The funny thing is that in the case of IE. if you are using IE8 already. why would you use Google Toolbar?. it is now just a redundancy of features you get by default and done better, unless you are strongly tied to Google Services. but if you cannot upgrade from IE6 or IE7 yet and use google services. the new IE Google Toolbar will be a fine upgrade. otherwise. there is not much for you to look into that.

Google Toolbar

via The Google Blog

Docstoc is the main competition against scribd. it trails it from afar but docstoc continue to accelerate growth little by little . and in a space as young and full of potential as it is the Digital Document space. stay in the race is half the battle. so now they will try to push the pedal to get closer to scribd with ther new feature. this new feature lets you upload from your e-mails. so you can simply send a e-mail with a main Office document format or with a PDF and get it converted into a Digital Document that can happily live in Docstoc and be view and shared as a document viewer widget.

One of the main differences i get from docstoc is that they paint themselves as the serious Digital Document hub. they want you to upload office documents and work documents,etc. so they aim for that niche and on those terms they could easily claim to be number one. so if you don`t trust your work e-mails to a service like this because you think it is too serious or too office work minded. don`t worry. docstoc want those kind of documents.

DocStoc

via TC

And the Widgetization Gadgetization at Google continues with Gmail being the new google property to get them. from now on you will be able to get a Google Calendar and Google Docs Gadget for your Gmail sidebar.

This will let you see your latest marked appointments in google calendar and your latest google docs. nice to have if you spend a lot of time in Gmail and your are not fond of using iGoogle.

You can also force other Gadgets to fit in your sidebar by using its XML URL but it is not recommended because it ends up being counter productive. but this open up the gate for all kinds of productivity based gadgets to get into gmail. a good thing again if gmail is your most used Google Service.

For more details visit the Official Entry in the Gmail Blog

via TC