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Category Archives for Widet Review

Mama Mia, That’s a Spicy Papa John’s Widget

As a New Yorker, I feel entitled to be a pizza snob. After all, outside of Naples, NYC lays claim to being home to the best pizza. Now, I’m not going to argue with you as to which is the best, Brooklyn’s Di Farra’s, Harlem’s Patsy’s (Frank Sinatra’s Favorite, just don’t tell the Patsy’s in mid-town, who’s in litigation over which restaurant can lay claim to that), downtown’s John’s Pizza, or the Bronx’s Baby Moon. In my opinion, all can go head-to-head against the town favorite in any town USA and win hands down.

Now, you may be thinking what does pizza have to do with social media marketing, which is, after all the focus of this blog. Or, did I mistakenly go to the Slice section of the Serious Eats blog instead?

Well, the good people at Papa John’s has combined two of my favorite things, pizza delivery and widgets, to bring America’s most consumed take-out food to a social networking profile near you. It offers a store locator and links you thru to the site where you can order. Special discounts provide an additional incentive.

This is the first pizza delivery widget I’ve seen. It’s not the most visually-appealing widget, but it does its job. A good first-step in widgetizing commerce. Take that Domino’s.

Written on 20 May 2008 by Richard Krueger under Widet Review, facebook with No Comments
Tagged with pizza, widget

The Art of Making a Mix Tape - Retro or Relevant?

You could say I’m old school. I’ll shun Halo for a game of Air Hockey, Frogger or Space Invaders anytime. I prefer drinking Stoli to any of the new-fangled vodkas - give me the taste of mother Russia over triple purified distillation any day. And, I still enjoy listening to my mixed cassette tapes, some of which date back to the 70’s.

Now, for those of you who don’t know what a mixed tape looks or sounds like, you are definitely too young to understand the connection it conjures up. From the sketchy hand-written labels to the cracked case, my brain’s memory goes into overdrive as faces, places and emotions are instantly retrieved from some long-ago, distant time. Nothing brings the past alive more than hearing a song from my youth.

And, just when you thought mixed tapes were a thing of the past, comes MixWit. A melding of my analog past and digital present, MixWit brings all the excitement of making a tape for that special somebody to a shareable widget format. And, with plenty of cassette casing, hardware and label customization to choose from, MixWit is much more fun that my old double Aiwa cassette deck ever was.

The free service allows you to choose between Seeqpod and Skreemr to search and add songs, or upload from your hard drive. You can then customize the cassette and cover art. Here are some examples:

You get the idea. The playback controls are simple and straight forward. The case displays the title of each song as it’s played. This is a great concept in widgets and executed brilliantly. Everyone I’ve sent a tape mix to has signed-up and made their own mixes.

So, if you thought the cassette tape had seen its last days, think again. Everything old is new again, and MixWit makes retro relevant.

Written on 01 April 2008 by admin under Music Widgets, Widet Review, facebook with No Comments
Tagged with 17, 31, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 85

Nexus - Understanding The Ties That Bind Us

What if you could map your friends and family inter-relationships and gain insights into the commonalities that exist within the overlapping networks? If you’re on Facebook, you can with a nifty application called Nexus.

Nexus creates an interactive image displaying the friendship links and shared interests of your friends. Roll your mouse over the dots that represent your friends and get a side bar view of their profile, complete with Facebook picture and common friends and interests.

Here’s a picture of my Nexus map:

When we look at our relationships in relation to one another, some interesting patterns emerge. As circles overlap and friendships intersect with interests, I’m reminded by something my father use to say, “the company you keep says as much about yourself as it does about your friends.”

Nexus allows you to map your corner of the world and make sense out of who you are.

Written on 01 April 2008 by admin under Widet Review, facebook with No Comments
Tagged with 17, 30, 52, 62, 77, 85

11 Must-Have Facebook Apps For Your Business

Since facebook launched its business pages earlier this year, there has been a proliferation of applications geared to the business user. In fact, the facebook applications directory lists more than 800 business applications at last glance. With so much free software just a click away, it’s hard to know the must-have, time-saving, money-making, productivity increasing apps for your facebook business presence.

So, to help you narrow down the selection and make sense of a difficult-to-navigate widget directory, we took some time to review our share of embedded facebook programs and have selected the ten apps (in no particular order) for your company page:

Static FBML

While facebook Pages are limited in terms of design customization, you can add the Static FBML application to any Page to integrate HTML directly on the page. This application, developed internally, allows you to renter HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) within a box for enhanced Page customization and added functionality.

FlashPlay

Similarly, if you’re looking to add some more flash to your page, and by that I mean Flash movies, animations, scripts, etc., FlashPlay allows you to add any flash file to your company page, visible to everyone. You may also browse their library to find a selection of popular games, animations and applications to add with the click of your mouse.

XING

Far more than a directory of business contacts, XING enables its members to discover professional people, opportunities and privileges through its unique discovery capability and advanced contact management tools. The company recently had a successful IPO and has had a long-term impact on the social networking trend amongst professionals. By focusing on the target group “business people worldwide”, the company is able to offer tailored features, thereby making networking and contact management simpler.

MyOffice

Ideal for teams spread out across different offices, MyOffice helps you manage your project or business with a collaborative suite of tools. Schedule meetings with your team or group, organize an event, discuss ideas, share files, create to do lists, collaborate on docs and whiteboards, and assign tasks to increase productivity. MyOffice lets you quickly and easily collaborate with your colleagues, partners, or clients.

Tag Biz Pro Business Cards

Business card applications are fairly common on Facebook these days. But Tag Biz Pro stands out from the pack with a realistic index card design and a bunch of networking features built in. The application allows you to

* create a Business Card and customize it
* attach your Business Card to Facebook messages
* browse other cards and read comments
* let others know what you are looking for

Anyone who is interested in doing business on Facebook should use tag biz pro. tag biz pro automates the relationship networking and referral process by placing a custom business keyword tag cloud on your Facebook profile and on the Facebook profiles of your friends that are participating in your business network. Pick your keywords, invite your friends and build your own business network with tag biz pro.

MyMoney

Manage your finances right from your Facebook profile, simply and securely! MyMoney is an online home banking application that interacts with a variety of financial institutions, so you can view your account balances, transfer money between accounts, review histories, and much more. Plus, MyMoney uses multiple layers of security, so that you, and only you, can access your account.

With MyMoney, you know instantly how much you have to spend on gifts, go shopping at the marketplace, and more! To get started, just click the “Add Application” button and search for your financial institution. Don’t see it listed? Enroll online for one that is, or send a note to request your bank or credit union to join! It’s that simple.

Huddles Workspaces

Although you can’t add it to your business profile yet, Huddles Workspaces allow you to store personal documents and share them with specific groups of friends. Up to 1Gb of free space, Huddle offers a collaborative approach to organizing and sharing files.

From the great minds at Techlightenment (the developers that brought us Bob Dylan’s Subtaranean Blues widget), Huddle also interfaces with people outside of Facebook, making it a truly utilitarian work collaboration application.

what.io
Another great application not yet available for business pages, what.io allows you to quickly save your IOUs. When installed, the IOUs are displayed as post-it notes on your profile. Print IOU certificates. Share with friends and don’t forget that road fin you loaned your buddy on your last road trip to Vegas. The service works easily with friends who are not yet on Facebook, via their email address.

PRX Builder

Based on the original Social Media Press Release Template from Todd Defren of SHIFT Communications, PRX Builder helps you easily create the next generation of press releases. Enhance your press release with new media elements such as links, multimedia, and social media service buttons for digg and del.icio.us. Automatically add Technorati tags and then distribute your release through PR Newswire. The service also optimizes your releases for higher visibility within Technorati and Google Blog Search. You can even moderate any comments your SMPR may receive. RSS and email subscription options make this an invaluable tool for companies looking to get the word out. And the best part is, the service is free.

Page Maps

Ideal for companies with a physical presence, Page Maps allows you to add a custom map to your business page or personal profile. Show your business locations or favorite spots around town. It displays a mini map requiring no additional clicks to see, and links to a larger map or directions.

Phonebook

How many times have you been asked for a contact by one of your co-workers. Phonebook allows you to share your rollodex in a secure environment. You can also attach emails and notes to contacts, back up your list and exchange/compare with your associates. Maybe now your staff won’t call you at 9:00 in the morning next time they can’t find a number and you’re away on vacation.

Written on 10 March 2008 by admin under Widet Review, facebook with No Comments
Tagged with 14, 36, 42, 43, 45, 48, 49, 60, 61, 68, 69, 72, 74, 76, 78, 79, 84, 89, 90, 91

Hey EA - Welcome to the Widget Game

It wasn’t too long ago that video game publishers and developers looked down on online gaming. Considered too low-brow for the big production focused studios, online games were like the bastard step child nobody wanted to recognize as part of the family.

I know the shame of being the unwanted sibling only too well, having traveled to EA’s Cupertino headquarters in 1999 on acquisition talks representing Kasparov Chess Online, one of the largest online chess networks. Company chairman Garry Kasparov was, and still remains, the most recognized name in chess. A brand onto himself, Mr. Kasparov is as saavy a businessman as he is at chess. KCF offered players of all levels a free chess gaming platform from which to challenge, play and chat with one another, maintain a chess rating (the equivalent of crack for chess players) and read daily chess news. We also sold chess-related merchandise and subscription-based Master class downloads - rather revolutionary for the day. Back in those days, we called it the 4C’s - competition, community, content and commerce.

If only we would had been better futurists and called it “social gaming,” it would still be in business today. Those discussions with EA never went very far, but I’d like to believe that it helped them realize the potential. Several months later, EA acquired Pogo, the largest independent gaming network at the time. And, as all things must end, Kasparov’s 20+ year reign as world chess champion ended, and so did Kasparov Chess Online, unable to ride out the great bubble burst of 2000, as it’s now known as. EA went onto grow Pogo’s audience, while diversifying its revenue streams. And Kasparov went onto challenge Putin in the Russian elections. We all know how that will turn out.

So when EA/Pogo announced a new Facebook widget for Pogo members, I was intrigued. After all, Pogo was all about social gaming, even before the term became the winner of the Most Repeated Buzz Phrase at the recent 2008 Gamers Developer Conference (GDC), in San Fran. Had they started to spread their tentacles to harness Facebook’s social graph?

Well, yes and no. While the widget allows Pogo subscribers (read: paid members) to display their profile information, avatar and point totals, receive Pogo-related news, and link back to Pogo for a few selected games, it falls short in leveraging Facebook’s viral strengths.

First, all users must be registered Pogo members. Not sure what the overlap is between Facebook and Pogo members, but since Pogo targets women over 35, while Facebook reaches a decidly different audience, I don’t expect much crossover between the two.

Secondly, all games simply link back to the Pogo hub. There is no game integration within Facebook. Ah, the old hub-and-spoke strategy feels more like the bait and switch made popular at consumer retailers like The Wiz.

Is EA just clinging to the old and familiar business model they’ve groomed so nicely since the Pogo acquisition? Or is there simply a disconnect between the old guard and the new — the centralized web vs. distributed networks?

Maybe the new social network-centric gaming companies like SGN and Zynga know something that the executives at Pogo have yet to figure out. Let me give them a hint — Facebook gamers want to play in their own backyard, not a click away in someone else’s playground. Maybe it’s the old Groucho Marx joke, “I would never want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.”

Note to self: Remove Pogo Widget from my Facebook Profile.

Written on 29 February 2008 by admin under Casual Games, Social Gaming, Widet Review, Widget Advertising with No Comments
Tagged with 10, 15, 40, 41, 5, 89

Presidential Widgets: Politics As Unusual

The fact that 2008, The Year of the Widget, is on a crash-collision-course with the 2008 United States Presidential Election hasn’t alluded the candidates, their internet-savvy pundits and wonkette junkies alike. Given all the political discourse we’re in store for over the next 10 months, it’s good to see that several non-partisan widget developers have the president’s office clearly in their sites to keep us all informed of the latest mudrucking.

For those who are firmly behind a candidate, widgetnest makes the 2008 Presidential Candidates widget to help you keep track of your man, or woman. Featuring headline links to latest news, directly from the candidate camp, whether you’re for Ron Paul, Joe Biden or Tom Tancredo, widgetnest makes a presidential widget for you. Cautionary note, if the number of installs correlates in anyway with the popular vote, it looks like Huckabee could run away with the race according to widgetnest’s stats (the company does note that the counter has been discontinued).

A funny thing happened to me when I installed the Obama widget on my Facebook profile - I felt like I was out-in-the-open, revealing where I stood. Even if he doesn’t get my vote, it was a declaration for all the social networking world to see. So, in addition to keeping the electoral base informed, presidential widgets, like campaign buttons and bumperstickers of yesteryear, are just as much an expression about who we are and where we stand.

But for those who don’t know where they stand, which according to some polls is close to 35% of eligible voters, developer Tim Hogan has created the Presidential Election 2008 widget, a nonpartisan general and candidate focused search that filters through RSS news, blog and forum information on each candidate. Built as a specialized Swicki widget from Eureka, the service allows its users to create a custom social search portal on the topic of their choice and offers digg-style user-generated voting on every article. So, in theory, with every search, vote and click, the swicki generates more relevant results and turns into a shared-knowledge resource to be spread virally via “get this widget” installer tab.

USA Presidential Candidates 2008
Search and Grazr

Dedicated Search Engines
Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Giuliani, Hunter, Kucinich, McCain, Obama, Paul, Romney, Richardson, Tancredo

News, Blog and Forum info

This is the first year that we can measure the true impact of widgets on a presidential election. Regardless of who wins, one thing is certain, widgets will forever change the speed at which a candidate can take his/her message to the people. Never again will it be politics as usual.

Written on 25 January 2008 by admin under Widet Review, presidential election with No Comments
Tagged with 22, 38, 63, 71, 87

Gruvr - Feelin’ Groovey

For all of you music fans out there, the web service Gruvr is an invaluable tool for discovering your local music scene. A true Web 2.0 mash-up, Gruvr serves up local maps, overlayed with live music information. No need to enter your zip code, Gruvr deciphers your whereabouts via your computer’s IP connection and localizes the map to correspond with your immediate major metropolitan area.Since live music is a social activity, Gruvr offers both local and band-specific widgets to share the music love. These widgets allow anyone with a blog, social network profile or web site to publish a live music directory. That alone is quite an accomplishment.Gruvr’s location-based widget provides a continuously updated listing of upcoming concerts near you. Each listing brings up the map of that show. To grab this widget, visit here. No need to fill in the town or zip code, as the service should already know where you live. Copy the widget to your blog or webpage via simple, one-click install process. If you’re handy with feeds, you can also grab their helpful GeoRSS or plain RSS feeds, if you just want the data.While their are a few others in this space, Gruvr offers about the easiest way to add local concert listings to your blog or website. Gruvr will even provide a link back to your site if you use the widget. Here’s an example of Live from Nashville’s Gruvr widget:

When users click on the Nashville map link, they are taken to Gruvr’s Nashville map:

Links with performance information within the widget are also provided and link back to each performer’s MySpace page for more information.Gruvr also offers a tour map widget, specific to a group or performer. It is this widget’s ability to track a musical act’s touring schedule overlayed on a real Google map that has made this a popular MySpace Music tool, invaluable for both performers and their fan base.Benefiting from the youth market’s enthusiasm for viral media, Gruvr has experienced tremendous growth via its band map widget thanks to some pretty high-profile musical acts adopting its technology. Among the more notable bands who have incorporated the widget on their MySpace pages are: Miley Cyrus, Jonas Bros. and Alanis Morissette. In total, the widget is featured on more than 1000 MySpace Music pages. But that’s just the start. Fans can grab their favorite musical performer’s touring widget and add it to their blog, web site or MySpace profile.Just go here to grab a band-map widget and type in your favorite band name (or myspace name if needed).It’s this ying-and-yang between artist and fan that make Gruvr a potentially powerful viral agent for the music industry. Since bands big and small are no longer selling CDs like they use to, live performances will be the big money maker, as evidence by the recent multi-$$$ deals put up by Live Nation to secure bands, ranging from the Jonas Brothers to Madonna.While Gruvr is playing with the big acts, it’s focused more on the long-tail of music, offering a much more granular view of local shows. Everyone knows when Van Halen is playing at the Garden, but who’s out there that we don’t know about. That’s where Gruvr has its greatest potential!And at just over 2-million uniques per month and showing consistent growth month-over-month, the service is really starting to take off. Leveraging the social media spoke-and-hub strategy, Gruvr pushes out content from its hub, while driving traffic back to the hub via its large-base of installed widgets (i.e. Spokes).

Gruvr is a self-funded, Boston-area start-up that, to date, generates revenue via Google AdSense and a few affiliate relationships. When will Gruvr start Feelin’ Groovey with cash flow? When it enables bands to monetize their fanbase via its widgets. And that’s exactly what the company has in store - from ticket sales to merchandise to digital downloads, there is no easy plug-and-play solution to support the millions of bands looking to earn a buck. Just when you thought there was no money in Rock & Roll, along comes Gruvr to keep the long tail of music wagging.

Some examples and screen shots

Neursonic myspace - advanced use of widgets on band pages Bucky Covington - from American Idol Flowmotion - widget used on myspace and band website The New Pornographers - example of standard myspace schedule vs. mapDubioza Kolektiv - example of European tour map kolektiv map Devon Allman’s Honeytribe - example of awesome layout art — but how easy is it to read the schedule? allman schedule

compare to the map: much easier to tell at a glance if they are playing near you…

devon allman map

Example of how upcoming-shows announcment looks as bulletin in myspace, used by Indorphine . Each date is clickable to bring up an individual concert map.

Written on 15 January 2008 by admin under Music Widgets, Widet Review with 9 Comments
Tagged with 10, 39, 47, 50, 66, 85

Roll-Your-Own with WidgetBox’s Blidget

“Take your blog. Make it into a widget. Share it with all the widgetsphere.”

No, not a haiku, but rather the description on WidgetBox’s Blidget tool set that unlocks your blog headlines and sets them free in the form of a Blidget (blog + widget = blidget). Well, bad nomenclature aside, this tool represents the next step in the maturation of the widget marketplace, or “widgetplace.”

All that is required is a blog URL and presto-chango, you’ve created your own widget. Post the widget on your FaceBook profile. Better yet, create a developer profile listing in WidgetBox’s directory and distribute your blidget to the widget community, or “widgetmunity.”

You have a choice of displaying just headlines, or entire posts. And, you have complete control over style, format, color scheme, etc. It’s a great way to promote content, offering a dynamically updated feed with one-click install. In addition to Facebook, WidgetBox allows for easy-installs for many of the popular platforms. See image below

WidgetBox even provides some basic metrics for you to monitor your blidget’s popularity. When open standards are adopted, you can imagine even greater possibilities for a tool set such as this.

The only thing I would have added is the ability to allow others to download the blidget from within the application, rather than back on the WidgetBox site. This would add to the blidgets viral capabilities and allow publishers to serve as their own distribution hubs. Otherwise, the genius of this application is in its simplicity and you have to applaud the 16 person team at WidgetBox for their ability to automate and commoditize the widget-building process - widgetations to all.

Written on 08 November 2007 by admin under Widet Review with 2 Comments
Tagged with 33, 87, 88

BuiltWith Widget - How Could We Live Without

For our first widget review, we thought it only fitting to review the BuiltWith widget, by developer Garazy. A widget that “Lists what your blog is built with. Shows if you are using analytics, frameworks, blogs etc.” was too good to pass up.

And, it did live up to expectations. We added the widget via distributor WidgetBox, which provided a user-friendly way to install the widget onto a variety of platforms. We chose to post to our iGoogle page, which once account id/password were provided, was quick and seemless.

Technically, a Google Gadget, the horizontal box magically appeared on top of my iGoogle start page upon my next visit. The builtwith service proved to be a powerful resource in analyzing web sites. It also offers a rating based on 1 - 5 stars for technical implementation. Not really sure how this ranking is derived, but given that it had rated this site a 4 out of 5, I was impressed with its insight and uncanny accuracy.

The site reviews four key aspects of a site’s architecture, including: analytics, frameworks, syndication and document formatting. In-depth analysis for each is provided on the www.builtwith.com web site. Site traffic analysis is provided by Complete.com. The service was helpful in reviewing competitive web sites, providing meta key words, identifying technologies such as Flash or Java, and traffic analysis.

The only drawback was that the search and results are performed not via the widget, but rather on the builtwith.com web site. In the iGoogle Gadget case, the widget simply served as a link back to builtwith.com.

I could see this being of more value as a FireFox plug-in, providing the same data in a drop down window or more transparent way than having to refer back to the builtwith web site.

The service also offers a more comprehensive report that site owners can order, but with a 4 out of 5 rating, I didn’t want to press my luck. If you’re a web developer, reviewer or online marketer, the BuiltWith widget and service could be a valuable resource for you.

Click here to download the BuiltWith Widget.

Written on 30 October 2007 by admin under Widet Review with No Comments
Tagged with 29, 34, 82, 87, 88

Category Archives for Widet Review

Mama Mia, That’s a Spicy Papa John’s Widget

The Art of Making a Mix Tape - Retro or Relevant?

Nexus - Understanding The Ties That Bind Us

11 Must-Have Facebook Apps For Your Business

Presidential Widgets: Politics As Unusual

Gruvr - Feelin’ Groovey

Some examples and screen shots

Roll-Your-Own with WidgetBox’s Blidget

BuiltWith Widget - How Could We Live Without

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