Beyond the Browser: Widgets and Rich Internet/Desktop Applications (RIDAs)

Beyond the Browser: Widgets and Rich Internet/Desktop Applications (RIDAs) Alok Bhardwaj, Founder, HiddenReflex alok@hiddenreflex.com Bharath Keshav, Software Engineer, HiddenReflex [email_address]

Widgets
What is a widget
A small program. Usually does a single thing.
Often gets data from the web (one key driver--alt. way to net)
Web widgets (Flash, Javascript, XML, HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML)
In browser; can have RIA-functionality such as drag-able
Desktop widgets (all above, Perl, Python, C++, Executable)
Download to desktop; flashy appearance/also drag-able and persistent layout
Language options vary depending on the particular platform
Predecessors: Apple II, Push technology, Pointcast, Weatherbug

Web Widgets: Uses
Aggregation Pages: Start Page(s)
RIA-type features; User Customizability
Example(s): NetVibes, PageFlakes, iGoogle, Yahoo Home Page
Personal Page(s)
Also often RIA-type features; User Customizability
Example(s): YourMinis, Piczo
Website/Personal Profile Enhancement
Example(s): MySpace/Facebook, Blogs, Other Websites
User Purposes:
Self-Expression widgets e.g. RockYou type photo, music widgets
Revenue-generating widgets e.g Paypal Donations or Deal of the day widget or Amazon item selector
Site Functionality-Enhancement widgets e.g Upcoming.org event badge or Twitter feed or Jaxtr anonymous calling widget
Content widgets e.g. news feeds
(Mash-Ups e.g. Mpire item price comparison from Auctions and Amazon)

Web Widgets: Start Pages

Web Widgets: Personal Pages

Web Widgets: Website/Profile Enhancement

Web Widget Internet Audience Penetration by Worldwide Region.
North America
40.3%
April 2007.
Source: comScore Widget Metrix
7.6%
Eastern Europe
12.6%
Middle East-Africa
17.5%
Latin America
10.9%
Asia Pacific
24.3%
Western Europe

Top Web Widgets Worldwide

Desktop Widgets
Desktop Data Integration with Web
Web Data to the Desktop
Heavier Widgets -- take advantage of client computing power
More Complex
Much More Diverse than Web Widgets
Single Function -- not a stand-alone program, often tool-like
Hot Button Access
Pulls up all widgets
Drag-able/Persistent Position

Desktop Widgets: Screenshots

A Selection of the Most-Downloaded Yahoo Widgets

Widget Business Models
Advertisement Widgets
Advertising-Supported Widgets
Selling Widgets
Ecosystem/Platform
Extend Site or O.S.

Advertisement Widgets
Widgets designed specifically by a company to creatively promote/advertise a product or service.
Example: FreeWebs has run several Widget-based Ad Campaigns
Reebok -- Freewebs created a customized a campaign that allows users to create and show-off their RBK creations via a virtual Shoe Fight contest. Freewebs aligned with RBK to increase awareness of their "Run Easy" brand and to drive traffic to the http://www.rbkcustom.com
Number 23 Movie Campaign-- Freewebs compelled users to see the Number 23 movie by creating a viral widget to ignite interest in the myster of The Number 23. Freewebs developed a unique Widget Game that manipulated bits of the User's personal information to show them the ubiquity of the number 23 in their own lives.

Advertising Supported Widgets
Source Code Not Secure
Advertising code can be cut out and widget re-distributed so advertising should be integral to a non-web-service driven widget (e.g. google business model).
Widgets without (web) value-added services can be hacked and advertising removed e.g. a widget to link to a particular product at Amazon can be hacked easily but a widget that displays comparative/best prices can’t.
Service-Based Web Widgets, even Desktop Widgets can implement “safety” measures to insure advertising is displayed
Forbes has a series of popular widgets that show for instance their headlines or most popular video stories and the widgets are sponsored by Visa (so here Forbes is distributing its content but also getting direct revenues via the advertising at the bottom of the widget (the Visa logo)).
User/Creator Revenue Split (again must be non-trivial)

Selling Widgets
Widget Source Code Not Secure
No way to control distribution.
Freeware with Donation Request?! (that too can be cut out)
Service-based widgets can be secured
Pay services via passwords or possibly OpenID
Monitoring to ensure widget distributors gain (if they’ve requested that is) some portion of revenues from page-views or sales for example
Grants/Contests (by platform distributors)

Ecosystem/Platform
Widgets can become popular and a network all their own
Example: MyBlogLog Widgets are inserted into blogs to show the visitors to that blog; Sold to Yahoo for $10-12 million
Ecosystem Opt-In User/Creator Revenue Split
May become Slide or RockYou or other self-expression type widget creators’ revenue model; opt-in for revenue share
Leverage/Insinuate Into Existing Networks
Facebook has emerged as a platform; has a more open policy regarding widgets compared to MySpace
A V.C. firm Bay Partners has created a special fund, AppFactory, to invest in Facebook widget-makers.
Lots and Lots of Desktop Widget Platforms (too many)
Konfabulator (now Yahoo Widgets) was bought by Yahoo
Google Gadget Ventures
Grants of $5000 for development of gadgets they like
Investments of up to $100,000 for widget-based business plans
For either, must already have created a gadget getting at least 250,000 weekly page views

Extend Site/O.S.
Windows/Mac integrate into O.S.
Extend Functionality of Network or Services
Yahoo Mail widget gives alerts or Yahoo finance widget portfolios
Brings Web Data to Desktop or Data from Desktop to the Web
Tie-in to other services offered
Closer in general to the User
Viral-spread of widget/site via web widgets
Since web widgets are published, a single widget installation is potentially seen by dozens if not hundreds of people creating viral distribution possibilities
YouTube Video Widgets on Myspace critical to its success and rapid growth
Enhance Site--RIA features have demonstrable quantitative benefits
More functionality and interactivity in a page. Less cumbersome /More Intuitive UI/organization/navigability. All=higher sales/conversions…
Extend Site
Mindspace/Site Promotion (widget promotes the site and vice-versa)
Baby Ticker – The Baby Countdown Pregnancy Ticker Widget from Babystrology
Click-throughs
to site(s) for more information, or additional services at which point advertising can be displayed and products or services could be sold

Widget Stickiness
Intuitively Widgets are sticker than a Website…as it takes more effort to download and install or cut and paste the code of a widget into one’s site than to visit a website.
BUT there are many indications widget users are quite fickle and that widget downloads are not indicative of durable success:
Tie-In Strength - the widget may be thought of by users as quite distinct from the product or service it’s meant to promote e.g. there were over a million installations of the widget for the film Hoot which flopped.
High Widget Turnover e.g. entrepreneur Paul Kedrosky wrote about his Facebook news feed widget and Facebook widget behavior: “People all add one app; people all drop that app. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is not a mainstream audience, nor does it seem to have much permanence… Don ’t get me wrong. Facebook is an awesome platform. But don ’t get overly excited about getting even a hundred-thousand people… With 27 million users you can get a decent-sized number of people to try pretty much anything. Whether any of [those people] will stick is another question.”

RIDA (Rich Internet/Desktop Application) Platforms
What is a RIDA?
A standalone application for web and or desktop service(s)
Greater access to client computing resources than widgets
Can Integrate or Mix Desktop and Web data/applications
E.g Dekoh’s photo viewer or iTunes or Employee Workpage(s) via Webtop
Usually has a specific purpose/site associated with it
E.g. eBay or Amazon browsers; finance or map (Google Earth) browser
Platforms
Dekoh, Adobe’s AIR (not just flash), WPF (.Net)/Silverlight, Cloudstack
Cross-OS GUI Platforms like qt, wxwidgets, Mozilla
Dojo’s Offline Toolkit (Google Gadgets), Browser offline support (Firefox)
LaszloSystems Webtop, Java WebStart
Flash-based Desktop Platforms like MDM’s Zinc or Northcode’s SWF Studio
Differences from Desktop Widgets
RIDA has own icon to load/stand-alone/distinct (not just a single-use tool)
Multi-purpose/Complex functionality/Integration of multiple related services or tools
Interface important and complex

UI/UE (user experience) Matters! From a PPT Presentation from Forrester Research on Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)

Sample RIDAs

RIDA (Rich Internet/Desktop Application Business Models
Ad-supported.
Example(s): AOL Radio
Linked to Website Service
Example(s): Dekoh browser for Google Calendar (good for Google!)
Brand-Extension/More Conversions
Better Interface(s) translates into better sales conversions/sales (RIA evidence at least)
Example(s): eBay or Amazon browser.
Better Product
Online/Offline Services crucial for say Google Doc.s
Selling Services
Content Services Can be Secure and thus Sold.
Example(s): Financial Trading Systems
Selling the Application itself
Can likely secure it like any other software (depending on the platform).

Why Develop a RIDA (Rich Internet/Desktop Application?
Own icon to load/stand-alone/distinct (not just a single-use widget).
Multi-purpose/functionality (unlike a widget).
Build a Specialized Platform/Aggregate Services/High Performance Services.
Rich, Highly Responsive user experience/Better Sales Conversions: Even with AJAX in the browser, there are still limitations to the kind of elegant user interface you can build. Evidence from RIAs indicates a high ROI.
Works Offline. (browsers like Firefox are integrating offline features…) Example(s): RSS or Mail Readers.
Decentralized infrastructure/Large Computation Requirements: Scalable server infrastructure not as crucial as users bring their own CPU cycles. (e.g. P2P networks).
Desktop/Web Integration. Example(s): Dekoh Applications.
High Branding/High User Investment--the ubiquity of the browser makes getting someone to visit your site easy, but it’s just as easy for someone to go to a competitor’s site..downloading a RIDA requires much more of a user investment/commitment to your product/service (for better or worse).

Widget, RIDA, Browser Comparison
RIDA (Rich Internet/Desktop Applications)
Stand-alone/Strong Branding/Front and Center for User.
Client Computing Resources/Heavy.
Desktop/Web Data or Service Integration.
Aggregation.
High Performance, Consistent Interface/High Reliability Applications.
Desktop Widgets
Single-Function, tool-like application or service.
Desktop/Web Data.
Consistent Interface.
Client Computing Resources/Heavy.
Browser
Lowest friction for adoption. Many users don’t download (period).
Cross-Platform easiest by far.
Ubiquitous access/Ubiquitous Browser Knowledge.
Little Uncertainty about client behavior/access to client resources.
Web Widgets
Simple, light-weight services (photo(s), news headlines, data feeds, etc.).
Creative design: “cool” factor for personalizing a blog or profile.
Aggregation.

Widget/RIDA Stickiness
In Theory, Widgets/RIDAs should be Stickier/Higher User Investment than a Website (perhaps)
Takes more effort to download and install or cut and paste the code of a widget into one’s site than to visit a website.
BUT there are many indications widget users are quite fickle and that widget downloads are not indicative of durable success
Tie-In Strength - the widget may be thought of by users as quite distinct from the product or service it’s meant to promote e.g. there were over a million installations of the widget for the film Hoot which flopped
High Widget Turnover e.g. entrepreneur Paul Kedrosky wrote about his Facebook news feed widget and Facebook widget behavior: “People all add one app; people all drop that app. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is not a mainstream audience, nor does it seem to have much permanence… Don ’t get me wrong. Facebook is an awesome platform. But don ’t get overly excited about getting even a hundred-thousand people… With 27 million users you can get a decent-sized number of people to try pretty much anything. Whether any of [those people] will stick is another question.”

Choosing a Platform: High-Level Technical Issues
RIDAs
Platform usage itself is immaterial as RIDAs are all a bit heavy and don’t generally require a pre-installed platform SO…
Choose the platform that natively supports key features of your product I.e Dekoh has built-in tag and sharing support features
Web Widgets
Test phase--choose a platform that has function(s) that support easy creation of your widget
Language-choice is important for MySpace is restrictive particularly in respect to javascript
Type of widget important for the platform to choose e.g. self-expression type widgets for publishers are ideal candidates for MySpace, Facebook, YourMinis, and may not be as clear a fit for start pages like Netvibes
Universal APIs and cross-site publication platforms are maturing (e.g. NetVibes API, Snipperoo, ClearSpring)
Post/Promote in Widget directories/aggregators like WidgetBox and others as well as through the Platform’s site and other relevant sites
Desktop Widgets
Test phase--choose a platform that has function(s) that support easy creation of your widget
Platform usage/number of installations is crucial so most likely you want to stick to a platform with a large user base such as Yahoo Widgets, Windows Sidebar or Apple’s Dashboard
Universal APIs being developed for easy cross-platform porting
Post/Promote in Widget directories/aggregators like WidgetBox and others as well as through the Platform’s site

Quicktake: Mobile Widgets
Widgets are a natural fit for Mobile Devices
Use less bandwidth than typical browsing
Browsing not easy; usually need some select service fast; touch screen
Always running/instant on
Emerging Standards/Technologies: Mobile Flash and Flash Lite; Java ME and JavaFX Mobile; Mojax
PDA platforms (Palm, Windows Mobile)
Fring -- VOIP/IM/Twitter Communications.
ZenZui -- Microsoft spin-off to widgetize webpages to ease web navigation.
BluePulse -- “two things here that make this important; the first is the sheer number of phones bluepulse works on and how good the experience is across the range.”
Mobio (deal with 9 Indian carriers, about 70% of the market)
Mobile Distellery/Celsius -- over 650 devices supported; easily ports mobile java applications to different phones.
Opera;
iPhone -- no widget support for outside developers/only within their mobile safari browser.
Webwag/Mobease; Bling Software; NeoMades (NeoMad; gaming); Plusmo (claim over 20,000 widgets); ActionEngine (rich media ap.s); Flurry
Widset -- Out of Nokia Emerging Business Unit. Technology based on Java MIDP 2.0. Over 1400 widgets. Over 300 phones supported. “a disappointing RSS reader from Nokia.”

The Future
Easy User-Created Widgets
Apple Clip for the Dashboard
RIDAs Rich Internet/Desktop Applications
Some applications Secure: RSS Readers, E-mail clients, Photo organizers/viewers, Music players
Wider future uncertain. Platforms just being launched.
Cross-OS/Cross-Site/Web+Desktop Widgets
Cross-Site Web Widget Creation/Publication: Clearspring, Snipperoo
Desktop/Web: Spring Widgets; NetVibes Universal API
Opera’s submitted open standards to W3C
Cross-OS: Yahoo (Windows, Mac); Opera (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Linux: open source projects to port to Linux; Dashboard; Yahoo Widgets; Windows may have as well (Mono group porting Silverlight to Linux)
Other Platforms: Mozilla (XULRunner), Java Platforms, Silverlight/Dekoh/Apollo; YourMinis via OpenLaszlo
HiddenReflex
RIAs (Rich Internet Applications)/Browser Developments
Spread of User-Customization via Widgetization/RIA to many, many websites

Now for Some Technical Details…
Thank you for attending the business/user experience-oriented part of our presentation.
For a copy of this PowerPoint presentation or if you have any questions, please visit our site at www.hiddenreflex.com or write either of us.
Alok Bhardwaj, [email_address]
Bharath Keshav, [email_address]

Desktop Widget Engines: Language Comparison
From Wikipedia (they have a good page which compares widget engines as well as other pages on widget engines and cross-OS development platforms)

A Peek into the Yahoo Desktop Widget Platform
Highlights of Yahoo's widget platform functionalities include:
Uses XML to define any widget. Javascript can be embedded.
CSS standard adopted as the rendering model for the Yahoo widget engine 4.0 onwards.
Several mechanisms for handling XML. These services provide easier way to create, parse, and manipulate XML trees.
Internet-related services such as fetching any URL, manipulating it, posting data to internet, etc can be written with a very little code.
Comes with innumerable functions to make widget programming intuitive and easy, particularly many related to animation.
Some examples include: itunes.play(), itunes.fastforward(), itunes.nextTrack(), itunes.prevTrack(),YahooLogin(), YahooLogout(),
In-built support for SQLite.
Let’s make some widgets…and see just how easy and fun it is…

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Beyond the Browser: Widgets and Rich Internet/Desktop Applications (RIDAs)

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Beyond the Browser: Widgets and Rich Internet/Desktop Applications (RIDAs) — Presentation Transcript