Widget Platforms and Start Pages: On a Collision Course

If anybody needed more evidence that the widget platforms and the online start pages are on a collision course, check out this announcement from Netvibes by way of Techcrunch:

The new product will be called the Universal Widget API and will be available at eco.netvibes.com/uwa (this site is live now with a landing page, more information will be available next week). Once launched, any widget created for Netvibes, Krim says, will work on the Vista, Google, Mac and Opera platforms as well. Support for Yahoo Widgets and other platforms will follow soon after.

A single javascript embed code will add the widget to any of the supported platforms. The code will recognize the platform and run the appropriate code for that platform within the widget. Once Coriander has launched, sites will be able to create and promote a single widget embed code for most platforms.

Netvibes is already claiming what looks like critical mass in terms of consumer adoption - 10M users, with about 1/3 of them spending at least an hour a day on the site.

If this isn't a consumer facing widget gallery and distribution play, I don't know what is.

So why is Netvibes doing this?  When your product is a glorified RSS reader that prides itself on being ad free, you'd better keep your options open in terms of business model.

Comments

[Clarke Scott]

Good news for those of us building widgets :)

Clarke
http://blogarate.com

[Daniela Capistrano]

... Thought I'd let you know that MTV News will be unveiling its first in a series of news widgets in the next week or so... I will definitely pass on info as soon as I can. Looking forward to reading your review :) ~ Daniela

[lawrence]

Thanks Daniela, I'll be on the lookout. Any idea who is helping MTV launch these widgets? Or are they doing it on their own?

[Ivan Pope]

It's an interesting play - but at this range it's hard to see how it will play in reality. The tools sound great and no doubt they will be - but they will still be tools for making widgets, and there will be plenty of other tools for doing the same thing. The intersting question here is how does this affect their strength, i.e. their own platform. I mean, they are letting widgets go to other people's platform - but who is helping other people's widgets go to their platform. It's going to be interesting.

[lawrence]

That's a great point Ivan. One thing I should have brought up on the post is that Netvibes is primarily (entirely?) a private service. So as a widget developer, does it make sense for me to prioritize building a widget for Netvibes when only the start page user is going to see it? It sort of kills the whole viral, widget to widget adoption aspect. So while it's neat that Netvibes users will be able to export their widgets to other sites, the most likely destination is a private Netvibes page.