netvibes - (re)mix the web

Netvibes Ecosystem presently contains more than 200 000 items, among which some more 100 000 widgets - which can look a bit impressive to new UWA developers wanting to make their mark in there, and get their own widgets to many user-pages.

Fortunately, Ecosystem does not solely rely on a search engine to help users find widgets for their page: each widget category is sorted by popularity by default, with two others sorts being available (most recent, and Premium Widget, which is a special type of widget, created by Netvibes).

So, since you cannot rely too much on the novelty of your widget - or the lack thereof, since new ones come every day -, your aim as a developer is to keep your widget as high as possible in the popularity scale. And since we have a bit of knowledge in this whole “widget” thingamagob, we thought it might do good to that community of ours to part with some of our erudite wisdom. ‘cos we’re cool like that.

Understand that the following “ways” to widget-popularity zen may seem obvious, but we’re not trying to chart new territories - here be no dragons, sadly -, but rather to be a witness of what popular widgets are made of.

Useful / Needed

This is the basic, mother-of-all ways. It’s so trivial I have a hard time filling this white space. Simply put, users are usually looking to add widgets that bring something to their personal space, something that will become the raison d’être of their, the reason why they’ll come back tomorrow to see how the widget’s content has evolved.

New mails in their account? Lower gas price at the local station? Interesting videos for a given search string? Long-expected movie on their favorite channel? That’s the essence of widgetization: having it all available in one page, at the click of a button - and users love optimizing their personal space with better widget, so if your idea is already taken, don’t let that stop it, just create a better version!

Pretty / Cool / Personalizable

The “widget as tool” paradigm is one way to look at filling a user’s space, but there’s more to it than just usefulness.

Not all users are looking to have their space become a state-of-the-art of productivity, but many tend gather widget they find cool: quick games, random images, countdowns, you name it. Nothing that accomplished anything useful per se, but that make the personal space that much cooler to look at.

And now that Netvibes Universes are about to be open to all, one more way to look at widgets is opening up: literally, pimping one’s Universe! Professional mails and todos do not have their place on a public space, but ways to express one’s personality sure do. Give users a new way to express themselves, to show of their tastes or even to brag about having your cool widget on their space.

Hence, also, the “personalizable” part of this section. A private space must fit a user like a glove, and a public space must be a reflection of his personality. Users will want to turn their space into their very own. Let them change things, choose colors, size and such. A widget does not have to be stuck in one way of displaying content: let users play with the way they want. Make them proud of showcasing your widget on their space.

Personalized widgets make one’s page that much cooler. And personalizable widget therefore have that much more chance to be chosen over static ones.

Timely

Countowns to an event are one thing, but whole widget built to display as much information about a coming or ongoing event are just ment to be added by fans. Sports, elections, car shows…

And since a widget is basically a tiny website, you can fit just about anything in there, using Ajax request: obligatory countowns, related blog-posts and videos, live reports… Assuming your server-side script is well built, you can built a widget that will get a life of its own before, during and after the event, with little interaction from your part.

Viral

We’re in a social Web, were cool stuffs are exchanged between friends. Netvibes widget work the same: users can share them with friends using many channels (e-mail, IM, blog…), and build your widget popularity by simple word-of-mouth. Users can even gather their favorite widget in one Netvibes tab, and share that tab with friends (and everyone thanks to Ecosystem)!

Netvibes Universe have a built-in functionality where logged-in users who visit someone’s Universe (friend or not) can quickly add a widget they like to their private space.

UWA’s portability is also a key to widget virality. You don’t have to share a widget with only your Netvibes friends, but with just about everyone that has an account on one of the supported platforms. Send widget for your Vista friends, advise the use of another for your friend who prefers Apple Dashboard! Widget are not stuck within Netvibes: they can travel from one platform to the other, and find more users over there.

Local

Local widget are something we like to push, because they have to most chance to answer to direct needs. Widget that are useful to inhabitants of one city, or even one neighborhood, are still potentially useful, but also get a lot more chance to stay on a user’s space.

See, online services come and fade, and with them their widgets, but we all know that the local cinema, the local gas station or the local corner-shop are here to stay - and are very much more real. If you know of a local service that has data you can display in a widget, do not refrain from doing for the reason that you’d be one of the only user: you never know how many people from your place might be interested in it, and therefore might look for it in the search engine… Make it local!

These are 5 ways to make your widget more popular.
To ensure maximum popularity, try building a widget that fits in more that one categories; one is good, two is great, three takes the cake. Four is unheard of yet, and five wins you something

Tags: ginger, idea, list, uwa, widget

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.