Within the mobile version of Safari for iPhone, here is how this mobile optimized version of the Meijer Mealbox app displays.
With a ShopLocal created and delivered weekly ad content focus (e.g., Meijer calls this type of content “One Stop Specials”), here are some screenshots of how this iPhone mobile optimized version deals with these localized promotions:
Here is the overall top level category browse view
The possibilities of distribution points for weekly ad content continues to increase. Today two versions of the same core weekly ad application went live for Target. These apps were built to live on user’s start / homepages that iGoogle and My Yahoo! pretty much have a monopoly on. Specifically the two apps that went live were for:
Here is what the two apps look like in their native state once they have been “installed” within a user’s personalized homepage (Note that all throughout this post I use the word ‘install’ very loosely. What I am trying to refer to is the process of allowing and adding these apps/gadgets to a user’s homepage. No real code is actually being installed on a user’s local machine):
This is how the My Yahoo! open app appears on a user's homepage in its native 'small' state
The iGoogle gadget and how is appears on a user's homepage in it's native 'un-expanded' state
Here is what each app looks like once a user chooses to expand them to the ‘large’ view:
This is how the My Yahoo! open app appears in its "expanded" state
This is how the iGoogle gadget appears in its "expanded" state
So now for a quick comparison of these two competing platforms:
My Yahoo!
A much more complicated ‘install’ process that involves up to three different clicks, compared to the one (1) click ‘install’ on iGoogle. Yes, Yahoo! Open Apps allow for more user driven privacy controls and a great degree of social features, so these come at a cost of a more involved ‘installation’ process
The “full” or “expanded” view of the app can be built in Adobe Flash / Flex, which in this case the Target app is. This just opens up the door to a richer, more engaging user experience
The “full” or “expanded” view has some graphical display ads wrapped around the content. I happened to catch one ad with some layering / shine-through issues going on that was interfering with the right hand part of the app
By default, it appears that the Target Open app within My Yahoo! is setup to auto opt-in all users into the below two (2) types of communications. Great for the marketer, but maybe not so great for the unknowing consumer:
Within the native, non-expanded view, the gadget gets cut-off. This looks sort of odd and is a bummer since this is the view state that most users will see the vast majority of the time
Built using light, fast and universal coding languages such as HTML, Javascript and DHTML
Since it is not built in flash, in this case a much deeper integration is exposed at the item detail page that pulls in an Amazon.com hosted layer that brings in all sorts of rich functionality like local inventory look up, one-click add to cart, add to lists, ratings and reviews
If a user decides to ’share’ the app with friends, within iGoogle the app makes some useful suggestions as to which friends of yours you might consider based upon your emailing habits within Gmail. With Yahoo!, this is just one big blank box that is nowhere as user friendly
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s live finally. The new Shaw’s online circular widget. It first started out as a series of mockups…
Early stage conceptual design of what the widget was to look like
and then was turned into a interactive flash application (a series of .swf’s or flash movies for you geeks out there) that was not able to be easily embedded or moved around. But then this same flash application was “widgetized” via Widgetbox which resulted in this cool top deals widget in being “wrapped” in such a manner that it is now very easy for a normal, non-geek user to grab this widget and for them to re-post and syndicate the widget across a whole host of supported 3rd party sites such as:
Blogger
TypePad
Wordpress
Facebook
iGoogle
Netvibes
Freewebs
Pageflakes
Ning
Piczo
It also opens up a load of social and viral sharing options like:
Email the widget to a friend
Post to Del.icio.us
Submit to Digg
Add to Twitter
Add to StumbleUpon
Add to Technorati
Add to Reddit
By using a 3rd party “widgetization” provider (eg Widgetbox), it not only makes these 3rd party integrations a snap, but it also allows for:
A bunch of “out-of-the-box” metrics to instantly be enabled such as:
Total widget views
Widget views by domain
Widget uniques
Menu shows (measure of how many people are interesting in grabbing or sharing the widget)
New installs
Active installs
New installs by domain
Additional exposure and distribution via the widget provider’s index (called the Gallery within Widgetbox) and widget specific search engine
Allows for users to rate and comment on the widget (so as to often provide useful feedback on what is working or not)
Very useful and detailed end user help guides and instructions on how to move or embed the widget into all of the various 3rd party sites
Here is a quick demo that the ShopLocal team put together. This is a universal web widget (built in Adobe Flex 3 / Flash 9+) that has been wrapped by WidgetBox. It’s pulling in live weekly ad content from Target (had to pick a retailer for example purposes and their content).
The focus is not the design, layout or which retailer is featured in this demo, rather the idea and concept behind it. Making a large, complex, highly branded weekly ad microsite (ShopLocal calls these SmartCircular sites) portable and allowing users to easily take just the most important part with them (e.g., the top deals for their local store) is what is noteworthy.
Here is a link to the widget’s profile page (within the Widgetbox site) where you can rate it and/or leave a comment
(3.67 out of 5)
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