What is a Widget, Anyway?

Does your website have a widget?

If you're scratching your head because you don't know what it is, you're not alone. A widget is simply one of those words that people apply to things they don't know the name of. But in computer land, a widget is a bit of HTML code that you can put on your website to jazz it up.

It's a miniature application that you can cut and paste and use for your webpage, blog or social profile that enhances your page. An example of a widget is a web counter, clock or even a little game that visitors can click on.

Widgets typically are easy to use and put on your page. It's a cut and paste kind of thing that you can easily embed on your website.

One fun aspect of widgets is that there are entire websites dedicated to listing free widgets that you can cut and paste and put on your website. If you're going to have a website, why fill it with only boring text? Put on a couple of visually exciting widgets that might also be useful to your visitor?

Several sites have ready-made widgets, such as an LED scroller for your MySpace page or neat little countdown clocks to an important event. If you're using it as a marketing tool, a countdown clock would be great as a way to get customers exciting about the launch of a new product.

You can also create your own widget taking boring spreadsheets and turning them into visual exciting graphics with free widget-making sites.

Widgets can also be used as a marketing tool. Clever little things, aren't they? Essentially, widgets can be an effective, low cost way of driving traffic to your website and creating brand exposure. If you create a widget that others put on their websites, clicking the widget brings them to your website.

For example, say you have a blog about ballet and create a cute little widget with various ballet positions. Someone else---say a kid in Ohio who loves ballet---can put that widget on their MySpace site, and when a visitor clicks on it, that person is brought back to your site.

Widgets are fun and can be a useful marketing tool if your particular widget catches on. Widgets are most popular on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. Click on any MySpace page and you'll no doubt see a widget. People use them to dress up their pages and to give visitors fun things to do while they're visiting.

Marketers debate about the effectiveness of using widgets as a tool to gain more customers. But large companies use widgets, so obviously they've recognized they can be an important marketing tool.

Promoting your widget takes nothing more than a little tag line near your widget that urges people to "Get this Widget."

Now. Does your website have a widget? If it doesn't, you should probably get one. Because every tool you can use to drive traffic to your site is worth a look.