Posts Tagged ‘widget news’

Quick Recap of the whole Widgetlaboratory – Ning story

August 28th, 2008

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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.

Ning Shuts Down Premium Developer WidgetLaboratory

ACT 2:”the David versus Goliath skit”

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.

WidgetLaboratory Strikes Back At Ning Where It Hurts

ACT 3: “The Wolf in Sheep clothes”

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.

Don’t Post The Evidence Unless It Supports Your Case

The Story Revisited

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.

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Polldaddy releases Polldaddy Jr, Polldaddy API , Media Polls and Wordpress Plugins

July 11th, 2008

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After over two months of silence from polldaddy where their last offering was the Twitter enabled polldaddy polls and 3 competitors (Quibblo, Poll Boutique and Poll Authority) have raised into the blog poll widget niche against them. Polldaddy surprises with the answer to that new competitors and more.

Polldaddy Jr.

Polldaddy Jr. is indeed Polldaddy son because it is a Poll creator and editor for OpenSocial Widget-apps. so it got the same features from the regular polldaddy poll creator and editor and it will get the updates from the main one as they happen but with the big difference that it sits inside a container that can be extended into OpenSocial compatible Social Network or adjusted for non OpenSocial compatible ones.

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We are launching a new mini app called PollDaddy Jr. This app  has all
of the features of our main site built into a container than can be
deployed to any partner site. We are launching this as an OpenSocial
app today on MySpace, Hi5 and Orkut. We will be adding more OpenSocial
enabled sites as the weeks roll. The great thing about PollDaddy Jr.
is that it can be deployed on any site so we can add it to sites like
Piczo (one of our partners) which don’t support OpenSocial.

As stated, Polldaddy will start with MySpace right now and enable polldaddy jr into hi5 and Orkut during next week in terms of OpenSocial enabled Social Networks. but will also adjust it for one of their partners that is Piczo and later will add other OpenSocial enabled social networks (which ones are left exactly?) as the weeks pass

I will be playing with this once it touches hi5 and Piczo so i can compare how they adapt and if the widget-apps generated are indeed identical.

The last bit is that they are also offering to adapt the Polldaddy Jr. app if you want to use it in another service that makes sense for Polldaddy to work with.

http://www.myspace.com/polldaddypolls

Polldaddy API

Linked as the product of what partnerships can bring, like the one they offer for Sprout. Polldaddy has no released an API so third parties can use Polldaddy services and make up other kind of widgets and Apps or enable Polldaddy widget into other apps.

We are also launching a fully functional API for use by partners
(SproutBuilder.com for example).

This is all part of a grander plan to increase distribution and get
our application in front of more people. Partners can now choose to
use our API, or if that’s not suitable then we can deploy PollDaddy JR
into their site with little work needed on their side. This lets them
offer poll services to their own userbase. In a sense we are trying to
widgetize our whole platform.

That part of widgetizing their whole platform is of course music in this blog.i sense more coverage in the future.

Media Polls

This is bad news for both Poll Boutique and  Poll Authority that have based big part of their offerings in Media Polls.

On our main site we have launched media polls. You can now embed
images, YouTube videos and Seesmic videos to your poll answers.

A new offering for the main site and it not only includes Youtube but Seesmic? wow. unexpected. Loic is damn everywhere these days.

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This is something i was expecting and talking about. Polldaddy needed this fast to not let others overcome them on that niche. now the ball is Poll Boutique and Poll Authority court to respond to this A.S.A.P. if they want to stay in course. right now the media poll support Images and Video on multiple instances but no Audio yet, so for that Poll Boutique is still ahead.

Worpress Plugins

They are now offering plugins for both Wordpress Blog versions:

We now have full suite of pluggins for all version of wordpress.org
and wordpress.com

This brings a better integration for user in Wordpress. but if they are supporting non hosted versions of wordpress, then i demand to know why there are not Polldaddy Blogger page element versions?.

Some Numbers on Polldaddy

Almost 100,000 polls are created each month, which in turn generate
100 million widget impressions, and collect 11 million votes.
We are a profitable company through the sale of Pro accounts.
2 guys – bootstrapped to date. (no funding)

Wow. 2 guys?. incredible. but i think is time to hire at least one person more so they can react faster.

Final Notes

Great updates on Polldaddy part, it should be enough for them to hold the lead in the space but if they could now concentrate in making the widgets prettier? . they are now kind of ugly. just saying.

Besides that, i think they got it. right now the only areas left to improve is to add even more media options, more customization, better look and better analytics. that is where the competitors had been concentrating and should continue to do so in order to keep Polldaddy in its toes.

http://www.myspace.com/polldaddypolls

Polldaddy.com

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Posted in Apps, Photos, Tools, Videos, Widget Development

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Widgetbox announces Custom galleries

July 11th, 2008

provides easy access to more than 70,000 widgets


Widgetbox stakes it’s claim in the widget world!

Widgetbox announces major upgrades to its custom gallery builder, providing easy access to more than 70,000 widgets

SAN FRANCISCO, July 10 — Widgetbox, the world’s first and largest widget community, today announced new features and increased support for its Custom Galleries by Widgetbox. Custom Galleries allow online networks across the web to offer personalized widget options for their users.

With more than 70,000 widgets and 45 million unique monthly viewers on over 929,000 domains, Widgetbox is home to the world’s largest widget community and is in a unique position to offer unrivalled choice and access to online networks that are under increasing pressure to sustain user and community loyalty.

For more information visit: Custom Galleries by Widgetbox.

“Widgetbox sits at a crossroads where the most important resources are converging to take the widget market from experimentation to realization,” said Will Price, CEO of Widgetbox. “Widget access, choice and reach are no longer simply desired by networks and advertisers; these are requirements for a maturing market. With Custom Galleries by Widgetbox, our partners can meet these requirements quickly and easily — and they can do so anywhere on the web, not just on Facebook.”

Custom Galleries by Widgetbox allow online networks to build their own widget galleries from the largest selection of widgets on the web, customize the appearance of their galleries, and track and manage performance with an intuitive dashboard. Other new features in Custom Galleries by Widgetbox include simple integration options for embedded galleries, customizable categories and sorting that allow partners to choose exactly how widgets are merchandised, easy branding for personalized widgets, and the ability to set up a revenue share program for promoted widgets.

Widgetbox’s suite of gallery services was first announced in May 2007 with initial support for Facebook. Since then, the company has increased its gallery of widgets by more than 500 percent and earlier this year added support for the popular social network Bebo. Widgetbox also provides Custom Galleries for Amnesty Hypercube, Doodlekit, Freewebs, Friendcodes, Netvibes, Nimble.ie, Piczo, staHrt, SynthaSite, TypePad, Webjam and Xanga, among others.

Widgetbox connects advertisers and creators with the largest audiences on the web by providing the only consumer-focused widget gallery. The company pioneered the rise of widgets and is in a natural position to accelerate the next online revolution through unlimited access to and easy use of widgets. Widgetbox widgets are embedded on more than 929,000 unique websites, giving widget creators and advertisers more reach than any other widget company.

Custom Galleries by Widgetbox is garnering rave reviews from Widgetbox partners.

“We knew we needed to add widgets to our toolkit. Custom Galleries by Widgetbox allowed us to bring our users the best widgets and their flexible tools make it a snap for us to manage the gallery,” said Heath Huffman,     co-owner of website maker Doodlekit.

“We’re excited to be able to offer our users a never-ending supply of fresh, dynamic content, without directing them away from our own site,” said Dave Kensell, project coordinator for Global Domains International, the .WS (WebSite) domain registry. “It’s nice to work with a company that’s continually improving its services — bring on the new features!”

“We’re excited to integrate a Custom Gallery by Widgetbox with our Amnesty Hypercube product which will make all 70,000 Widgetbox widgets available for one-click install to the desktop,” said Danny Espinoza, president of Mesa Dynamics.

“Netvibes is the daily widget platform of choice for millions of people worldwide. Now users will have access to an even wider array of high-quality widgets from Widgetbox without having to leave our site,” said Chris Damsen, VP Business Development of Netvibes. “Widgetbox has been great to work with and we’re excited to offer their massively engaging content to our users.”

“Nimble’s custom widget gallery provided by Widgetbox helps make nimble.ie into the fun and vibrant social networking website it is today,” said Per Jacobsson, CEO of the Irish social network nimble.ie. “Our users love the widgets and they keep coming back for more!”

“The powerful tools in the new Custom Galleries by Widgetbox make it easier than ever to build and sustain a custom widget gallery that appeals to our members,” said Jeremy Verba, CEO of Piczo, which launched its first Widgetbox-powered gallery a year ago.

“Widgets have become an ever more important ingredient for the online experience,” said Matt McBride, CEO of StHrt.com. “Custom Galleries by Widgetbox allows us to deliver the best widgets to our users: seamlessly.”

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer Widgetbox’s new Custom Galleries to the SynthaSite community in the coming months,” said Brent Vijolen, co-founder of SynthaSite.

“Our Custom Gallery from Widgetbox made it easy for us to extend our TypePad Widget Gallery with the widgets available from the Widgetbox community,” said Michael Sippey, Vice President, Products of Six Apart.  “We’re excited about giving TypePad bloggers a wider variety of widgets to share with their readers on their blogs.”
“Widgetbox has figured out the right recipe for meeting the increasing demand for widgets that crawl to every corner of the web,” said Yann Motte, CEO of Webjam. “Within a week, the Widgetbox Custom Gallery was seamlessly integrated into the Webjam interface and our users can choose whichever widget they like, fully customize its settings, and embed it onto their webjam in two clicks.”

About Widgetbox

With more than 70,000 widgets and 45 million unique monthly viewers on over 929,000 domains, Widgetbox is home to the world’s largest widget community. Since 2006, Widgetbox has pioneered the rise of widgets and connects widget creators, consumers, and advertisers by providing choice to those who want it and reach to those who need it.  By leveraging its massive widget exchange, and understanding the desire for users to have online freedom, Widgetbox is accelerating the Internet revolution through unlimited access to and easy use of web widgets. For more information, please see http://www.widgetbox.com.

To read the entire press release visit: Widgetbox Gives Online Networks New Tools for Creating Custom Widget Galleries

Widgetbox

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Posted in Tools, Widget Marketing, Widget Platform

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MyYahoo updates, tries to save face

July 8th, 2008

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Because being in the brink of destruction is not something of worry enough for Yahoo to stop their scheduled updates now the new My.Yahoo is out. this just after Microsoft has soft launched My.Live and updated MSN with a beta and of course the new iGoogle looms closer as a unstoppable menacing force in terms of  startpages that come from any of the big 4.

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some of the updates along with a new fresher look are:

  1. More modules from content providers (New York Times, WSJ, etc.)
    More modules that integrate content from other parts of Yahoo’s network (Flickr photos, Calendar, Movie Showtimes)
    Better support for Third party email (Gmail, POP) and other services (Netflix and Facebook)
    More layout options, tabbed browsing, other navigational improvements

Yahoo has reacted too slow in this area and while it remain the Top Starpage it has lost lots of users to Facebook, other social networks and of course other Startpages.

image

This makes this last update underwhelming because of the threat they face from Google, AOL, Ask, Microsoft and even Netvibes in their Space. pretty much the ONLY worthwhile announcement to come from it is that My.Yahoo will finally allow to third parties to develop Modular Startpage widgets for My.Yahoo. even then. this comes out so late that it is very doubtful My.Yahoo can keep from losing more users.

 New MyYahoo

via  Techcrunch

 

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Posted in Start Pages, Web 2.0, Widget Development, Widget Platform

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Slide Opens Sales Office, Techcrunch questions its value

June 5th, 2008

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A interesting post about the little bit of news that Slide is opening a sales Office in New York (so now it operates in both coasts) serves as the way of Techcrunch questioning Slide value….yet again.

I mean, i do agree with Mark on all the facts he brings to the table of Slide. everyone know they are in on the fun. but fun is huge biz. how is different what Slide does compared to Celebrities or Trivial Businesses like the ornaments biz that is absolutely ephemeral, trivial and even shallow but has been a huge biz for what? 200 years now?.

I see slide the same way. they along RockYou went for that space in the Widget Market, and they do a damn fine job at it. too good actually. i am not a stranger to question both companies. just last week i questioned RockYou position too. but the very same things that serve as a way to question slide are the same reason for their success. including the fact its founder got quite a success record..

On the Huge Valuation of slide.. well that is a thing i blame Facebook as a association to Slide best market. so maybe the blame is in the Facebook Value speculation.

Still a nice post for those not familiar with Slide as a company:

Slide

Slide Opens Sales Office in New York, Seeks to Justify Huge Valuation

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