I have been asked about widgets and Gadgets many times during my travels for the Online Marketing Summit, so it’s about time I got around to answering the most common questions that people have have regarding widgets.

Question 1: What is a Widget?

Wikipedia defines a widget as “an element of a graphical user interface (GUI) that displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box. The defining characteristic of a widget is [that it acts as] a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. Widgets are basic visual building blocks that, when combined in an application, hold all the data processed by the application and the available interactions on this data.”

I can tell why people are confused about widgets from that definition – it’s not particulary clear, is it? To make things easier let’s define a widget as “an object (think text box in a word document) that users can add to a web page to receive small, targeted pieces of information.”  There are news widgets that you can add to an iGoogle page that allow you to get RSS feeds from most news source (ex: NYTimes). Oh, and if you do not know what iGoogle is yet, drop what you’re doing and go set up a page.

(For the record, gadgets, applications, and widgets are the same thing. It’s just that Google prefers to call their widgets gadgets, and Facebook prefers to call them applications.)

Question 2: Should I Use Widgets?

Not unless you’re a publisher or marketing on Facebook. The reason is twofold:

• Widgets are only as good as the medium they’re displayed on. Very few people have iGoogle or Facebook as their home page, so even the greatest widget in the world may never be seen..
• Even today, most company websites, search engine efforts, and analytics are abysmal. Fix those first, then start getting cute with widgets and gadgets.

Question 3: Is their ROI in Widgets?

Yes, but only in the long term ROI for publishers and information disseminators. If you’re looking at widgets as a lead generation tool, forget it. They’re more valuable for building an audience. ESPN’s widgets are a good example of this. I have a few ESPN widgets on my iGoogle home page that allow me to get custom RSS feeds about my favorite teams, so when I travel to other cities see what’s happening with my teams even if the local papers aren’t covering them.

Ultimately, widgets are something that will change the face of publishing, but the technology needs time to mature before it’s ready for the big leagues.

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