Web Widgets: High-impact Strategies - What You Need to Know: Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors

Kevin Roebuck

Description

The Knowledge Solution. Stop Searching, Stand Out and Pay Off. The #1 ALL ENCOMPASSING Guide to Web Widgets.

An Important Message for ANYONE who wants to learn about Web Widgets Quickly and Easily...

""Here's Your Chance To Skip The Struggle and Master Web Widgets, With the Least Amount of Effort, In 2 Days Or Less...""

A web widget is a software widget for the web. It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: portlet, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Widgets are typically created in DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash.
Widgets often take the form of on-screen device (clocks, event countdowns, auction-tickers, stock market tickers, flight arrival information, daily weather etc.).

Get the edge, learn EVERYTHING you need to know about Web Widgets, and ace any discussion, proposal and implementation with the ultimate book - guaranteed to give you the education that you need, faster than you ever dreamed possible!

The information in this book can show you how to be an expert in the field of Web Widgets.

Are you looking to learn more about Web Widgets? You're about to discover the most spectacular gold mine of Web Widgets materials ever created, this book is a unique collection to help you become a master of Web Widgets.

This book is your ultimate resource for Web Widgets. Here you will find the most up-to-date information, analysis, background and everything you need to know.

In easy to read chapters, with extensive references and links to get you to know all there is to know about Web Widgets right away. A quick look inside: Web widget, Widget engine, Adesklets, AveDesk, Comparison of widget engines, Dashboard (software), DesktopX, GDesklets, Google Gadgets, HTML Application, Kapsules, KDE Plasma Workspaces, Makagiga (software), Microsoft Gadgets, Multiple frames interface, Opera (web browser), Samurize, Screenlets, SuperKaramba, WidSets, Windows Desktop Gadgets, XULRunner, Yahoo! Widgets, Clearspring, Glowe (programming language), Playlist.com, Slide.com, Zembly ...and Much, Much More!

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Sujets

• Computers
• Informatique
• General officer
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Emereo Publishing
• Date de parution: 24 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781743336656
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

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Sources, licenses and contributors of the articles and images are listed in the section entitled “References”. Parts of the books may be licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. A copy of this license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”

All used third-party trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Contents

Articles Web widget Widget engine adesklets AveDesk Comparison of widget engines Dashboard (software) DesktopX gDesklets Google Gadgets HTML Application

Kapsules KDE Plasma Workspaces Makagiga (software) Microsoft Gadgets Multiple frames interface Opera (web browser) Samurize Screenlets SuperKaramba WidSets Windows Desktop Gadgets XULRunner Yahoo! Widgets Clearspring Glowe (programming language) Playlist.com Slide.com zembly

References Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

Article Licenses

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License

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Web widget

Web widget

In computing aweb widgetis a software widget for the web. It's a small application that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: portlet, gadget, badge, module, webjit, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Widgets are typically created in DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash. Widgets often take the form of on-screen device (clocks, event countdowns, auction-tickers, stock market tickers, flight arrival information, daily weather etc.).

Widget A widget is a stand-alone application that can be embedded into third party sites by any user on a page where they have rights of authorship (e.g. a webpage, blog, or profile on a social media site). Widgets allow users to turn personal content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on websites where the code can be installed. For example, a "Weather Report Widget" could report today's weather by accessing data from the Weather Channel, it could even be sponsored by the Weather Channel. Should you want to put that widget on your own Facebook profile, you could do this by copying and pasting the embed code into your profile on Facebook. Embeddable chunks of code have existed since the early development of the World Wide Web. Web developers have long sought and used third party code chunks in their pages. Early web widgets provided functions such as link counters and advertising banners. Widgets may be looked upon as downloadable applications which look and act like traditional apps but are implemented using web technologies including JavaScript, Flash, HTML and CSS. Widgets use and depend on web APIs exposed either by the browser or by a widget engine such as Akamai, Clearspring, KickApps, MassPublisher, NewsGator, Plusmo, Widgetbox, Widsets, WebWag and many others. Sites such as MassPublisher, SnackTools and Widgetbox, allow users to easily create widgets from their own content with no coding knowledge necessary.

Major widget types Widgets come in many shapes and sizes, but two of the major types today are Web widgets and Desktop widgets. Web widgets are intended for use on (embedding in) webpages and have major implications in areas such as site performance, SEO and even backlink campaigns. Desktop widgets are embedded on local computers, and do not impact SEO or webpage performance. As an example, Widgetbox generate Web widgets that can be used on almost any website. Apple Desktop widgets can only be added to the desktop of your local (Apple) computer.

Usage in social media End users primarily use widgets to enhance their personal web experiences, or the web experiences of visitors to their personal sites. The use of widgets has proven increasingly popular, where users of social media are able to add stand-alone applications to blogs, profiles and community pages. Widgets add utility in the same way that an iPhone application does. The developers of these widgets are often offering them as a form of sponsored content, which can pay for the cost of the development when the widget's utility maps to the user's needs in a way where both parties gain. (e.g. a sports news brand might gain awareness and increased audience share in exchange for the utility of current game scores being instantly and dynamically available - the blog which posted the Sports score widget might gain in having a stickier site).

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Web widget

Element of control One important factor with Widgets is that the host does not control the content. The content or the functionality it provides can not be modified by the host. The content is pre-published by the publisher/author/service provider and the host can either accept that content or not use the widget. The host does however control the placement of the Widget. Because the host can always take the Widget down, it assures a large degree of mutual advantage and satisfaction with performance and content.

Security considerations As any program code, widgets can be used for malicious purposes. One example is the Facebook“Secret Crush” [1] widget, reported in early 2008 by Fortinet as luring users to install Zango adware.

SEO Considerations One major consideration in the use of web widgets is how they'll impact the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your site. Client-side widgets include pretty much anything rendered in JavaScript or Flash, and are by far the most common types of widgets you'll see today. The content of these widgets is not visible to search engines, and will therefore not be seen as part of the content of your site. Server-side widget content is visible to search engines, but these are slightly harder to embed. In both cases, search bots can see the embed code for the widget itself, so some of the SEO concern can be alleviated this way—but SEO should be part of your consideration in the use of any widget on your site.

Widget management systems Widget management systems offer a method of managing widgets that works on any web page, such as a blog or social networking home page. Many blog systems come with built in widget management systems as plug-ins. Users can obtain widgets and other widget management tools from various widget companies.

Mobile Web widget A Mobile Web widget is a web widget that is made or designed for access on mobile device.

Standards [2] The W3C is creating a set of standards for web widgets and there are several proprietary standards.

References [1] "Widget inflicts malware - Facebook ignores advisory?" (http:/ /blog.anta.net/2008/01/05/ widget-inflicts-malware-facebook-ignores-advisory/).blog.anta.net. 2008-01-05. ISSN 1797-1993. . Retrieved 2008-01-05. [2] http://www.w3.org/2008/webapps/wiki/WidgetSpecs

Further reading a Rajesh Lal;Developing Web Widget with HTML, CSS, JSON and AJAX(http://widgets-gadgets.com/ ?page_id=2) (ISBN 9781450502283)

External links a Check Point AppWiki (http://appwiki.checkpoint.com/appwiki/applications.htm) - Characteristics and threats of Web 2.0 widgets

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Widget engine

Widget engine

In computer software, awidget engineis a software service available to users for running and displaying applets on a graphical user interface, such as that of the desktop. The widget model in widget engines is attractive because of ease of development. Most of these widgets can be created with a few images and about 10 to several hundred lines of XML/JavaScript/VBScript source code. A single host software system, such as a web browser, runs all the loaded widgets. This allows several desktop widgets to be built sharing resources and code. The term widget engine is not to be confused with that of a widget toolkit. Toolkits are used by GUI programmers, who combine several widgets to form a single application. A widget in a toolkit provides a single, low level interaction, and is prepared to communicate with other widgets in the toolkit. On the other hand, widget engines such as desktop widgets and web widgets are intended for end users. Desktop and web widgets are stand-alone, task-oriented applications which can be composed of several related interactions on its own. Each widget serves only a purpose that is usually addressed by the effort of one GUI widget in a full-scale application.

Types

Desktop widgets

Desktop widgets (commonly just called widgets) are interactive virtual tools that provide single-purpose services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, the time, a calendar, a dictionary, a map program, a calculator, desktop notes, photo viewers, or even a language translator, among other things. Examples of widget engines include:

The Wikipedia Widget, in Dashboard running under Mac OS X v10.4

a Dashboard widgets of Apple Macintosh a Microsoft gadgets in Windows Vista and in the Windows Live system a Plasmoids are widgets in Plasma, the workspace for the KDE desktop environment. a Portlets in Google Desktop a Yahoo! Widgets a gdesklets, adesklets, and Screenlets in Linux a Opera widgets on all platforms (desktop, mobile TVs, gaming Early developer version of Plasma Desktop with Plasmoids consoles) using the Opera browser's rendering engine. a Homescreen widgets in Maemo Originally, desk accessories were developed to provide a small degree of multitasking, but when real multitasking OSes became available, these were replaced by normal applications.

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Widget engine

Blidgets Blidgets are desktop widgets that connect the user to a blog.

Widget draft standard On 9 November 2006, the Web Application Formats Working Group in W3C released the first public working draft [1] of Widgets 1.0. . The intention is to standardise some aspects of widgets. The Opera browser is the first client side [2] widget engine to adopt this draft W3C standard. . Apache Wookie (Incubating) is the first server side widget engine to adopt this W3C standard. Wookie is a server that manages widget instances and allows them to be embedded in web applications in addition to being provided for client devices such as Opera.

Mobile widgets Most mobile widgets are like desktop widgets, but for a mobile phone. Mobile widgets can maximize screen space use and may be especially useful in placing live data-rich applications on the device idle-screen/home-screen/"phone-top". Several Java ME-based mobile widget engines exist, but the lack of standards-based APIs for Java to control the mobile device home-screen makes it harder for these engines to expose widgets on the phone-top. Several AJAX-based native widget platforms are also available for mobile devices. The growing pervasiveness of mobile widgets is easily understood. While widgets are a convenience in the online world,they can be looked at as near-essential in the mobile world. The reason: the mobile device is small and the interface is often challenging. Wading through large amounts of information in a mobile environment isn't just a nuisance; it's a near impossibility. One of the biggest challenges of widget development is writing multiple sets of computer code so that a widget will be compatible with multiple operating systems and types of devices. Companies considering new mobile widgets should evaluate and then deploy applications according to four criteria: the business model, distribution model, server-side application framework and the run-time environment. Many solutions are growing for mobile widgets. Among them the BONDI initiative whitin OMTP is trying to defragment these solution allowing the same widget to be run on different mobile phones allowing secure access to mobile phone capabilities.

Web widgets Web browsers can also be used as widget engine infrastructures. The web is an environment well suited to distribution of widgets, as it doesn't require explicit interaction from the user to install new code snippets. Web widgets have unleashed some commercial interest, due their perceived potential as a marketing channel, mainly because they provide interactivity and viral distribution through social networks. The first known web widget, Trivia Blitz, was introduced in 1997. It was a game applet offered by Uproar.com (the leading online game company from 2000 - 2001) that appeared on over 35,000 websites ranging from Geocities personal pages to CNN and Tower Records. When Uproar.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal in 2001, the widget was discontinued.

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