Widgets are little programs embedded in HTML pages that do things like find an online Scrabble partner in the wee hours of the morning. The applications themselves may be small, but several of them have millions of users. Those are the types of numbers that get marketers' attention. But how many consumers are actually using them?
In an August 2007 survey, JupiterResearch and Ipsos Insight found that 43% of young people ages 18 to 24 used widgets and that another 35% of the same group were unfamiliar with widgets. The findings suggest that the older the person, the less likely he or she was to use widgets or be familiar with them.
Jupiter’s survey likely understates how many people use widgets. Given that 76% of Internet users ages 18 to 34 reported using a social network in a September 2007 survey by Dynamic Logic, it is highly likely that these people have added widget-based features to their profile pages but either do not know or do not care to use the term “widget.”
Additionally, comScore reported that, in November 2007, 81.1% of the total US Internet audience viewed a Web widget, a figure that does not include people who used applications on Facebook.
The measurement service is still a work in progress, and some have questioned the counting methodology and whether a “viewer” is a good measure of widget usage (as opposed to measuring interactions). Still, it offers one of the few third-party estimates of widget usage.
An earlier version of comScore’s widget service found that 40% of Internet users in North America, or 81 million people, viewed a widget in April 2007. However, differences in measurement technique mean the April and November 2007 figures are not directly comparable.
Meanwhile, 20.6 million people, or 61.3% of Facebook’s visitors, engaged with an application on the site in November 2007, according to comScore.
Further widget usage growth depends on several Web trends. These include the continued fragmentation of the Web audience, and ongoing consumer interest in spreading information and ads virally.
More important, however, is continued social networking growth, and evolution of social networks into walled gardens reminiscent of AOL 10 years ago.
In the near term, the number of people using social networks will continue to grow.
In 2008, nearly 44% of adult Internet users and 77% of teen Internet users will visit a social networking site at least once a month, eMarketer projects. That is up from 37% of adults and 70% of teens in 2007.
Widget supporters believe that social networks now act for young consumers the same way ISPs like America Online did in the early days of the Web.
Because widgets and applications can automatically deliver information and entertainment, a user can theoretically get everything he needs without leaving his social network.
“Advertisers are trying to figure out how to get involved in this social network-Web 2.0 world. If you’re going to reach that audience, you want to reach them in a manner that works for them on the sites they are spending time on,” said Peggy Fry of widget services company Clearspring, in an interview with eMarketer.
So for the widget market to succeed, social networks must continue to claim Internet users’ time. The more people can get done there, the less they are likely to go elsewhere.
Ultimately, however, it will be up to consumers to determine the fate of widgets and applications.
