Collecta.com delivers real-time, streaming news stories about the web’s most popular topics.

Collecta.com also now offers a cool, fully customizable widget that delivers the real-time streaming content that you want. The information is delivered in a top down format with the newest information appearing at the top. This widget is similar to the Twitter widget that is offered directly from Twitter. In fact, the Twitter widget in the sidebar of Widgetslab is where I saw a tweet about the Collecta widget that inspired me to write about it.

I created a quick “Google” topic Collecta widget for display purposes. You can imagine how fast the results poured in.

You can pause and un-pause the flow of information in this widget with one click. This is a cool feature if you plan to have a very active topic. A pause button would be a welcome feature for the Twitter widget. (hint, hint Twitter)

One thing I did notice is that Collecta widget allows you to use your own CSS to customize the widget. This is a bit geeky for most users. But the custom CSS option offers you unprecedented control over the appearance of the widget. I personally would prefer that you could choose to either use your own CSS or choose some simple border colors from a palette. (maybe a future option)

Collecta says:

The Collecta Widget Builder lets you make a widget for use in your website. Fill in the fields below, click “Build Widget” and preview the result at right. If you like what you see, grab the code and use it in your site. If not, edit the fields and build again until you are happy with the result.

So, if you are interested in having the latest information on any given topic, displayed right on your site…check out http://widget.collecta.com/