Common Misconceptions About Web Widgets

Posted on 8 January 2009 by Patrick FlanaganNo Comments

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So there are no dumb questions.  I believe this fully.  So here are some common misconceptions that keep coming up over and over again as ShopLocal engages clients around the widget | gadget space that I’d like to set straight.

1. Web widgets can be downloaded.  This is FALSE for the most part.  By the very definition of what a web widget is, they are NOT downloadable, but rather snagable, grabbable or embeddable (all of these are synonyms in this context).  Basically users just copy and place the widget onto or within another web page or site.  No actual file is being downloaded from the internet and being installed on your local machine. This is the beauty of what makes a web widget’s unique and powerful.  Whenever a user visits a web site or web application that they have placed (or embedded) a web widget, that exact web widget is available anywhere, regardless if they are accessing that specific web page from their own personal computer or not.  It’s just like web email (eg Gmail, Hotmail, etc).  The emails are not downloaded to your local machine.  All of your messages remain within the email web site so that you can access your mail anywhere at anytime.  Web widgets are no different.
2. Web widgets require something to be downloaded first, like a platform or run time environment.  This is FALSE for the most part.  Again, the whole point to wrapping up a small micro-application or piece of content into a web widget is to avoid putting up any barriers of adoption or use.  Out comes the web email example.  To access Gmail or Hotmail, no user has to install anything.  It’s as easy as logging in.  Yes, some of the early platform specific widgets like Yahoo! Widgets required a base platform be installed, but these type of widgets are a dying breed that are not going to survive.
3. Web widgets are able to be placed on one’s desktop (or WebTop as this blurred line is being called). This is FALSE for the most part. Web widgets live within or on web pages, not a single specific user’s desktop of their personal computer.  To create something that does this, a specific desktop application needs to be created, typically within (or using) Adobe’s AIR platform (which is now being bundled with all Flash Player installations / upgrades).  This is a very different and unique type of applications that in all honesty is much more powerful and immersive than a web widget, but does require a much more motivated and trusting user to download and install one’s desktop application.
4. Web widgets are able to be placed or installed on one’s iPhone / iTouch. This is once again FALSE for the most part.  What this describes is an iPhone application which is a very different than a web widget.  iPhone applications are written in an Apple specific language (xCode) and are typically deployed through the iTunes App store.  There is a very unique set of rules, interactions and set of possibilities that come along with creating and releasing an iPhone application.  All of which are 180 degree different than a web widget.

Web widgets are their own unique type of applications that however many similar qualities they may share with other types of applications, they have their own standard of identity.

So let’s recap quickly:

• Web widgets are NOT downloadable or for that matter every downloaded
• Web widgets do NOT require that anything be installed on a user’s local machine
• Web widgets are NOT the same as desktop apps
• Web widgets are NOT the same as iPhone apps

Yes, there are exceptions to each of these rules (which is where most of the confusion stems) due to some 3rd party widget providers (such as Clearspring, Gigya and Widgetbox) offering some ‘out-of-the-box’ support for some of these type of non-standard options on a hit or miss basis.  But in a general, pure academic sense of what is entailed within a web widget (or as I have referenced previously as an universal widget) these four conceptions and mis-use of terminology are just plain FALSE.

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