I love widgets that are powered by implicit data. Why? Because fresh, personalized widget content can be generated by doing what you were doing anyway, with no extra effort required.
My favorite example of a widget powered by implicit data is the iLike widget. iLike captures the music that I listen to through iTunes, and summarizes recent tracks in a widget (that also plays samples of the songs). Because this widget is powered by implicit data, it’s always fresh (as long as I’m listening to music through my iTunes account), it’s always personalized (as it is projecting a data stream which is mine alone), and I don’t have to go out of my way to publish it.
Implicit data widgets are all about capturing data streams that are already out there, and packaging those streams for consumption on other sites.
Fred Wilson recently wrote about how he believes that harnessing implicit data could be a defining characteristic of the next generation of Web sites. I agree. Given what seems to be growing interest in this subject, I thought it might be a fun exercise to publish a list of all of the implicit data streams that we can come up with that might be useful as widget fodder.
Using RateItAll’s list publishing tool, I’ve created a list of thirty one implicit data streams with varying degrees of widget potential (both as private and public widgets), and am hopeful that those who have been thinking hard about this stuff chime in with more. This list itself is, of course, available as a widget. Click through to add more implicit data streams to this list, to rate and comment on the widget potential of each implicit data stream, or to grab this widget for your own site. The widget can be found in the right column.
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