9 myths about widgets

Off the back of what I posted yesterday showing how Coke and Nike are using widgets well - here are 9 widgets faux pas so to speak. Thanks to iMedia Connection for these:

1. Widgets are trinkets (Consider: how have widgets have evolved exponentially since their Jurassic days)
2. Widgets aren't important (Actually, widgets will soon be the new model for the construction of whole websites)
3. Widgets are only about social networking (But as more traditional media companies and web portals become more comfortable with user-generated and user-mediated content, the industry is likely to see the widget world expand far beyond the realm of social networking)
4. Widgets are social application unto themselves (Think: widgets are still fairly small components of larger pages -- not distinct microsites. Widgets must still compete with other widgets and other content on a page)
5. There's no room for ads on widgets: (Fact: widgets are ads. At least, they can be. With the ability to insert dynamically changing feeds and run video within widgets, advertisers can take advantage of the medium to develop much more dynamic, richer campaigns. Widgeads?)
6. You can't make money on widgets (Consider this: When consumers use widgets to exchange notes or send messages, the widget itself becomes a product or a conversation. And for the successful advertisers who can use widgets to build a user base and generate clickthroughs, "The value of that conversation is ridiculously high")
7. Widgets are blind (False: widgets are in fact informed by social data. Each widget can be used to construct a unique social graph that tracks both user demographics and time spent with that widget across the web)
8. Widgets don't bring traffic (If that's the case, the publisher isn't using the widget correctly)
9. Widgets aren't viral (But they can be: to make widgets viral they have to contain video, photos or music, as well as some content that offers genuine value to users)

Visit http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19736.asp for the full article.