Widgets are Dead; Long Live Widgets

Yesterday brought us an interesting post from Dead 2.0 (I love the tagline - "Anti-Hyping Web 2.0 since 2006!") that looks at the "widget market" and basically concludes that there is no such thing. Mashery is mentioned as a recently funded "widget outsourcing service", a characterization first put forth by Om Malik in a Business 2.0 article.

Both of them quote me as saying the "business models around widgets are still emerging", which to me is stating the obvious. Understating, even.

I agree with the skeptic that counting on someone like myspace to allow you to make money distributing your widget on their service is more than a little risky. He is spot on in saying " I do dispute whether companies that are focused on “producing” widgets should be companies at all."

Widgets are certainly being hyped, and like most such beneficiaries/victims of hype, the value gets lost amid the noise. A widget is a means of offering a web service in a package that is easier to integrate on a web page. A new name and new hype for something that has been around for awhile, whether in the form of a traffic counter, a photostream, or a product listing from some affiliate marketing program.

The value that is delivered is the service, not the conduit. Some services are conveniently and economically delivered as widgets. Some aren't. Myspace and services like it account for a great deal of web traffic, but they are hardly the only kinds of pages that will incorporate web services delivered as widgets.

What's business model will emerge around widgets? There are likely to be as many different models as there are vendors. It's like asking what the business model is around blogs. Some blogs seek to create value directly, through advertising or sponsorship or subscription. Others create value tangentially, whether it's a CEO blogging about his company or a news anchor blogging about the evening news. Still others fall somewhere in between, such as a consultant whose blog may attract clients or a VC whose blog may attract potential investments. The point is that anyone offering a widget or any web service - just as with anyone who blogs - has their own idea of why they are doing it, and what value they intend to create.

And as for Mashery, we don't see ourselves as a "widget outsourcing service", though we'll likely perform some service like that for some of our clients. We help anyone offering web services, regardless of the form or the conduit for delivery, achieve whatever goal they set out to achieve in offering that service. Whatever their business model.

Comments

[Kevin]

Hello Oren, How are things going! I've heard that you are starting a new venture, and also notice from B2 article. Not sure if you still have chance to visit beijing lately but definitely let's stay in touch! Good Luck! :)

[Craig Cumberland]

Thoughts on Widgets for the non-desktop space?