The Widget makes a comeback!

In my many (too many?) years in the software and consulting industry, the term "widget" got to be a commonly used term.

It was always used in generic software demos, Sample Company A who makes widgets. . . and on the demo went.   Of course clients never liked this.  It does them little good to see a demo with products that have a weird name, and customers that aren't their own.

Of course now we always do demos with client-specific data (see our white paper on ERP selection best practices) to make the sofware accessible and meaningful to end users who don't deal with new software applications on a day to day basis.

Does this mean the end of the widget?   Quite the contrary!  The widget is back, bigger and better (well better, if not bigger) than ever.   

In the world of blogging, the widget is a real beast!   A widget is a small tool, component, feature  - some small software application (applet?) that gives provides a specific capability on your BLOG, one of my favorite topics. 

Widgets are being created left and right.  Could be a clock, a counter, a bookmark, a sign-in box, etc.  And with open API's the library of widgets is growing exponentially.

For information on widgets, and on blogs in general, please check out typepad, or sixapart, wordpress, some of the companies behind the blogging revolution.   

Check out a few blogs, and find the widgets -- you'll be impressed!