- Seemingly overnight, everyone is in love with widgets.
Consumers love the tiny software applications that let them share music, photos and videos, and even throw virtual sheep at one another, on social networks. And social networks love widgets because they help boost traffic and ad revenue on their sites.
On Facebook alone, users have installed nearly 13,000 widgets approximately 765 million times, according to Adonomics, a Web site that tracks widgets on the social network. Adonomics estimates the combined value of these widgets to be $374 million. There are also rumors that major media companies, notably News Corp. (nyse: NWS – news – people ), want to add developers to their stable of properties.
As a result, the number of individual hackers and companies that develop widgets has mushroomed to an estimated 100,000 worldwide, begging the question of whether the sector is in a bubble. Industry experts, however, say the concern is misplaced–for now–and that the fast ramp up is no different from what has happened in past generations of software development.
“It’s too early to call it a bubble or a success,” says Ross Levinsohn, the former News Corp. executive who oversaw the company’s celebrated acquisition of MySpace. “You’re really talking about the last six months as the real beginning of the growth of applications. It’s just the beginning of what we’re going to see over the next 12 to 18 months.”
Filed under: Brand New Tech, Innovative Tech, New Tech, design trends, interactive | Tagged: widgets
