What is a widget?
September 28, 2006
Is this the best way to promote a new feature to a non-technical audience? This appears on our local television network’s website:
I click on the link to download it and I’m overwhelmed by the information which follows (I’ve bolded a few terms):
TVNZ Headlines Widget is a free desktop headlines watcher.
This widget lets you view the latest Television New Zealand headlines from dozens of News, Sport, TV ONE and TV2 categories sourced from tvnz.co.nz. The widget also allows you to search the tvnz.co.nz website for articles and videos of news, sport, and your favourite programmes.
The TVNZ Headlines Widget updates with the latest headlines every 5 minutes from the category you have selected. You can also choose alternative skins and dozens of colours to harmonise your widget with your desktop.
Instructions for downloading the TVNZ Headlines Widget
You can download the TVNZ Headlines Widget free from the Yahoo! Widget website.
Step 1 - You must first install the Yahoo! Widget Engine in order for the TVNZ Headlines widget to work. You can find that at http://widgets.yahoo.com/
The Yahoo! Widget site contains detailed instructions for installing the Yahoo! Widget Engine and running the TVNZ Headlines Widget on your desktop.
Step 2 - Locate the TVNZ Headlines Widget by going to the yahoo gallery page http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/
You can then use “Search the Gallery” using TVNZ as the keyword, or scroll through the listings in the News Feeds gallery to find and open the TVNZ Headlines Widget.
Note: TVNZ Headlines Widget is currently only available for Windows PCs and requires Windows 2000 or XP or later.
Look for more free TVNZ Widgets out soon.”
I find the word “widget” to be vague and an off-putting term; unless you’re a Mac user or a techy-type person. Is that just me - do you like the word widget and find it a useful term?
I’m also not sure why they didn’t just link straight to their widget on the Yahoo site here, rather than forcing people to navigate and search through the site. The description of the widget on the Yahoo site is as follows:
TVNZ Headlines Widget is an RSS feed reader for articles published on tvnz.co.nz – the website of New Zealand’s public broadcaster. This Widget lets you link through to the latest headlines from dozens of News, Sport, TV ONE and TV2 categories. The Widget also allows you to search the tvnz.co.nz website for articles and videos of news, sport, and your favourite programmes.
According to Pew Internet Research in 2005, only 9% of online Americans had a good understanding of what the term “RSS feeds” - they’re not talked about much here in New Zealand so I would be inclined to think that it would also be understood by only a minority of people still.
In order to get this thing working, you’ll have to install the Yahoo Widget Engine and then the TVNZ headline widget. Is it worth the trouble?
There’s been 515 downloads in the last 6 days so people are definitely interested - but I wonder if more would if the barrier to entry wasn’t so high or technical?
I’ve tried various widgets in the past and have ended up removing them all. They’re like gimmicks to me, and I end up switching back to bloglines to monitor my favourite sites, the little Windows clock in the bottom right to check the time and notepad++ to manage little notes.
How would I promote a new “widget”? Here’s a first stab at it:
“Live TVNZ headlines right on your desktop - for free!”
For instructions, something as simple as the following could work (with linked instructions on how to install the programs):
I am also a user of bloglines! View my subscription here. Of course yours is in it too.
— Chin, September 28, 2006
I agree … ‘widget’ was originally a term used in business to refer to a generic product. They might as well call it a ‘thing’.
Maybe a ‘desktop plug-in’ would be slightly more understandable. Not to say ‘plug-in’ is user friendly but it has a longer history in the browser.
Or just ‘desktop application’ … sometimes being clever hurts more than it helps.
— Kai, September 28, 2006
To an unMac not terribly techie user (i.e. me;-) widget is cutesey, it sounds like the terms marketers come up with so as to make technology more “cuddly”. I MUCH prefer your version which tells me what the “thing” will do for me. I would not mind a little more info in small print about how it will or won’t try to take over my machine, because I’ve had bad experiences in the past with cute downloads!
— tim bulkeley, September 29, 2006
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for your comments about the TVNZ Widget. Now that I take a look at the instructions again I can see where you’re coming from - they are too technical. We will have a look at it today and see what we can come up with.
Cheers
— Adrian Krzyzewski, October 4, 2006
Awesome! Thanks so much
— Rachel, October 4, 2006
Widgets and Web 2.0…
Widgets have become a hot topic in the web community lately as a large number of sites are allowing users to personalize their experience. The term widget can be used interchangeably with gadget, badge, module, capsule, snippet, mini and flake…
— Somewhat Frank, October 5, 2006
Rachel! Just popped by and see that you are also enjoying the fabness that is Regina Spektors new album! Nice choice!
— pete, October 12, 2006