It seems like just yesterday that I was in Syracuse speaking before the wonderful group of Communications Professionals within the State University of New York college system.

The subject was "Mental Telepathy? Staying Ahead of the Curve: New Communication Techniques"

Kreskin, Uri and Houdini couldn't make it, so it was up to me to present the latest technology trends and how to use them for Branding, Bonding and Best Communications Results.

For a moment I was a rock star, but that was then and here I sit today, trying to catch up again.
I've mastered the blogs, wikis, social networking, interactive telecommunications and virtual worlds only to discover that the next new things are widgets: portable chunks of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based Web page by an end user .

Since I've been usings MAC computers forever, I'm totally in love with my widgets. Here's my list:

Cheapest Gas on Long Island

Where to find WiFi

Weather
Ad-Ology (the latest advertising news)

Technorati pings

Leo Horoscope

(ok, you caught me, the Tarot too!)






Dave Morgan, Chairman of the Behavioral Targeting advertising network Tacoda believes that over the next three years, widgets will change online advertising as we know it today.

Here are his reasons:

• Personal media. Widgets are all about people -- content creators, content modifiers, content critics, critics of content critics, content distributors, content trackers, content viewers, and content engagers. Widgets are to media what Transformers were to children's toys. Widgets puts content -- and ultimately advertising -- in the control of people that use them.

• Lots of "widgetable" content. Widgets are just ways to display or distribute digital content. We have a massive World Wide Web of digital content. There is no shortage of content out there for everyone and anyone -- from professional publishers to content creators to archivists to users -- to put into widgets.

• Lots of distributors and lots of places to distribute. Everyone is getting into the distribution of widgets. The television companies, from NBC/U and Fox to CBS, are doing it. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL are doing it. Almost 2 million folks have downloaded WeatherBug's various widgets and gadgets, including those built for Vista, Google, Yahoo and Apple. Widget enablers like Brightcove are doing it. MySpace and Facebook are doing it, and so are millions and millions of their users. Millions and millions of blog writers are doing it. The Web is already awash with widgets, and they're all just getting started.

• Desktops are valuable pieces of marketing real estate. On the desktop your brand is constantly displayed, whether it's a permanent home for your logo in the system tray, the toolbar, the start menu, etc. For every minute customers are using their computers, they're viewing your brand in some fashion. And as Eluma's Joe Lichtenberg noted, "a desktop community provides you with a constant connection through which you can stream relevant information, messages, alerts, and offers."

• Sight, sound and motion. Most of the widgets out there today are Flash-based, which means that they can carry video. Video means sight, sound and motion, which is music to the ears of advertisers. Mix that with lots of highly attractive consumers who are deeply engaged in viewing, distributing, modifying and interacting with widgets, and you have a recipe for a robust ad-supported media platform.

• Highly measurable. Where consumers go, advertisers follow with their money, if they can track and measure it. Of critical importance here is that widgets and user interactions with them are highly trackable and measurable.

• Portable to mobile. Finally. While widgets are just starting to explode on the Web, lots of folks are already porting widgets for mobile usage, and Apple's iPhone introduction certainly won't slow that down.

According to my search on indeed.com, there were 344 openings for widget developers so he might be right.

Looks like I'll have to get myself on the SUNY guest list for next year with an update on Mental Telepathy......

I'm thinking of a wonderful marketing communications agency.....

Labels: Online Advertising, recruitment technology, technology, widgets