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Free Widget-Tracking Tools - Quantcast

Quantcast, the website tracking service, is now offering free widget metrics as part of its free beta options to users.
Now included in the Quantified Publisher Program, Quantcast will measure flash-based media, including videos and widgets that have been placed on other websites. For now, Quantcast will offer metrics for the number of “plays” each widget gets, as well as the amount consumed, and the category. Future upgrades for this widget-tracking service will include the ability to measure frequency, distribution, demographics and lifestyle assessments to offer a more complete picture of the people that are utilizing your widgets.
With the increased use of widgets, for personalized start pages as well as existing social networks and desktop use, it’s very important to have a comprehensive measure on how these widgets are being distributed and used. This comes into play from a business and marketing perspective. Clearspring, Widgetbox and Musestorm also offer widget-tracking services.

Widget Analytics

http://widgetanalytics.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/widget-analytics-social-network-stats-versus-my-widget-platform/

Scion Widget Ad on Gamespot

check it out: http://demos.interpolls.com/demos/scion/gamespotwid.html
produced by Interpolls.
We even got a bit of press for running it:
http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628477

Clearspring and Gigya on Why widgets are worth watching

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18254.asp

To make Widgets Successful

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18419.asp

Policing:
....many of the successful widget platforms provide feedback mechanisms where the community at large can comment and vote on widgets, such that the crummy ones get buried and the great ones are given top billing. They also build in reporting mechanisms so that bugs or malicious code can be quickly discovered and removed.
Without a system for self-policing, widget platforms are doomed to repeat many of the same mistakes as email.

Standards
Bill of Rights that contains some basics, such as the notion that when a user tells a widget to uninstall itself, the widget should do so. Another might state that widgets can't use contact information without permission. Much like email, widgets could soon become things people want to protect themselves from, rather than engage with.

Prioritizing messaging above utility
The best widgets extend utility to the people that install them. Messaging is a secondary concern, if a concern at all. If marketers fail to realize this, we could flood widget directories with thousands of useless widgets, killing off the widget ecosystem.

Crummy success metrics
Viral pass-along can be one of the measures that marketers look at in order to gauge the health of the campaign, but if that metric is overemphasized, designers will start designing to fulfill on the metric, delivering "success" at the expense of compelling utility. No tricks to get users to send it along!

eMarketer numbers on Widgets ad spending

http://www.emarketer.com/Reports/All/Emarketer_2000368.aspx?src=report1_home

Behaviroral Targeting Standardization Effort

The first meeting of the behavioral targeting standards consortium is scheduled to
happen at the OMMA Hollywood conference in March. There is a need for business process standards that would simplify the ad buying process for agencies.

Two additional guidelines cover the use of data tracking for purposes other than behavioral advertising, and notifying consumers of policy changes regarding the use of behavioral data.

The complete proposed guidelines document is available on the FTC's Web site: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/12/principles.shtm

BRIDGET - Gigya Test

NetShelter Network and Widgets

NetShelter has mostly aggregated smaller, techie-oriented sites with names like PhoneScoop, Geek.com, and GamersHell.com. These fall into five broader categories covering mobile, games, developers, IT and consumer electronics.

NetShelter already ranks as the second most-trafficked technology news property online behind Cnet, with about 26 million unique visitors as of December, according to comScore.

NetShelter is also tapping into another Web marketing trend by unveiling a widget-based campaign. The Widget Base platform will let publishers and advertisers create microsites housing online stores, resource centers or online communities. The widgets will be promoted via branded buttons and banners throughout the network.

More:
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76202&Nid=39222&p=241154

AOL Buys Widget Tech Firm

AOL acquired widget technology company Goowy Media with plans to deploy widgets that feature programming, content, applications, and ads. Special widget-based ads will permeate AOL's ad network, and allow users to take the message to other sites.

San Diego, Calif.-based Goowy Media is a widget creation company; its offerings include a tool to track and report where widgets appear, and how Web users interact with these small applications. Metrics such as which widgets get picked up by users from a particular social network, and how long users remain engaged with a particular widget are reported by the tool.

As part of the products division, Goowy will work closely with Platform A as the widget ad offering becomes available. The group will be responsible for sales of widget ads. "It'll be another tool that Platform A will be able to use as part of its toolbox or arsenal of ad solutions," said David Liu, SVP of social media, messaging, and homepages at AOL. "It offers different types of characteristics for ad buyers." AOL's Flash chat property Userplane, was also mentioned by Liu as a potential unit for selling ad inventory, and providing working with Goowy.

More: http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628333