What's A Widget?

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SES NY: What's A Widget?

By WebProNews Staff -03/19/2008

It's something that delivers one site's content to others when embeddedLittle desktop gadgets that reside inside a computer monitor deliver extra information to the viewers who opt to make them part of the daily browsing experience.
Our devoted scribes in New York attending the Search Engine Strategies conference brought us news of widgets. Panelists discussed these software doodads and how they fit into the search marketing strategies being used today.

They defined a widget as something that delivers content and interactivity from one website to another, within a smaller, user-installed piece of software. Christian Oestlien of Google said he saw no reason a search campaign could not link to a gadget.

He also noted how advertisers should think of their ads as content. Thinking that way make the gadget display the start of another method to reach out to viewers during a campaign.
Many conference goers likely observed the Getupdated name around the building. The company picked up the tab to be the biggest sponsor for Search Engine Strategies.

Their R&D head, James Welch, likes the idea of using Google Gadget Ads for campaigns. He cited high interaction and great click-through rates as reasons why agencies and clients appreciate them so far.

Those ads may fulfill various needs based on the customer. Brand awareness, lead generation, and data collection serve as reasons to deploy them.
Welch believes sites constructing these ads ought to come from a different source than the IT department inside a company. Marketing people should build them and ensure a great mix of design and data will be in place for the gadget's deployment.