YourMinis Widget – A Review

YourMinis is one of a number of online start pages that allows users to aggregate RSS feeds, widgets, and custom templates to create a launch pad for browsing the Web.

Most of these start pages are fairly closed systems – they allow content (rss feeds, widgets, etc.) to flow in, but don’t make it easy for those same feeds and widgets to flow out.

YourMinis has opened things up a bit by making it exceedingly easy to export any widget on your YourMinis start page to any other Web page. 

Here’s how it works:

• You add a widget or RSS feed to your YourMinis start page by navigating the left sidebar of your start page
• Once a widget has been added, you’re able to choose from a drop down associated with the widget that says “Copy Mini to Web” – this displays the Flash code that can then be embedded on your Blog or SNS profile

They really did a wonderful job of making this very easy.  I was able to add a feed of the RateItAll blog to my left sidebar in about 30 seconds.

So what are the implications of this?  I think there are a few significant ones.  As Pete Cashmore says, there is a little doubt that the other high profile start pages will have to follow soon (though I believe Pageflakes already has this functionality).

More importantly, this move puts YourMinis in a competitive position with the widget platform services like Snipperoo, Widgetbox, and SpringWidgets.  By introducing a widget export service, YourMinis has in effect become a widget platform and management system.

I do think the challenges facing YourMinis are different from the challenges facing Widgetbox and Snipperoo however.  In my review of Widgetbox from a few months ago I say:

So the task at hand seems pretty straightforward; 1) put together the world’s best widget directory to attract developers and publishers alike; 2) blend the directory experience into the platform experience so that using one is using the other; and 3) wire the Widgetbox platform to the big blog aggregators to enable easy implementation.

YourMinis is attacking the problem from another angle.  As opposed to trying to change consumer behavior by getting folks to using a widget container to manage all of their widgets, YourMinis is just trying to become a preferred start page – a concept that I believe is much less foreign to consumers than a widget container.  By becoming the preferred start page, it’s an easy next step to allow folks to start exporting their minis (widgets) to all corners of the web, of course pushing the YourMinis brand in the process.

So again, just to hammer this point home, Widgetbox and Snipperoo seem to be using widget galleries to attract consumers to their widget management system, and YourMinis is using a start page.  It will be interesting to see which approach attracts more users.

I don’t want to imply that YourMinis has an easy road ahead of it.  It’s certainly not going to be an easy task to win the start page niche, given all of the excellent, well-funded start page competitors like Pageflakes and Netvibes.  And you have to think that eventually MyYahoo! is going to stir as well.

One other point here – the distribution impact of the YourMinis widget will depend entirely on existing YourMinis users.  This is a tool for YourMinis users to help spread the word about the YourMinis service – nothing more, nothing less.  What we will not see is people grabbing a YourMinis widget from one blog and putting it on another (like we saw with YouTube.)  I suspect the user acquisition associated with this widget will go like this – some percentage of folks that see a YourMinis widget will be curious and click through.  Some percentage of those folks will open up a YourMinis account.  And some percent of those new users will become regular users and start exporting YourMinis widgets to other pages.

IMHO, this ability to export widgets from your start page just made the start up page niche a heck of a lot more interesting.  No longer can start pages just be considered to be battling it out for destination traffic.  They are now battling it out for distributed presence on blogs and social networks all over the Web - and that IS interesting.

Comments

[alex]

Great review - I think overall you have a good grasp on the potential and challenges that face all of the companies in this space.

For yourminis we want to be a widget platform that users can do with what is most meaningful for them.

You can use yourminis in a variety of ways including as a personalized start page, as a public page that you can share with your friends (check out http://dir.yourminis.com), and as individual widgets for your blog, myspace, personal page, etc.

In addition we offer you a variety of ways to access yourminis including as a webpage, an individual widget, as a browser plugin, as a desktop client (in the near future) and through their tv, or cell phone (coming :))...stay tuned - its going to be a fun ride!

[lawrence]

Sounds cool Alex, thanks for the additional info.