The Widget Economy

Came across this interesting viewpoint of Netvibes CEO Tariq Krim:

Question : Will Widgets Kill the Webpage?
Answer : Widgets are killing the Webpage. It is time to go to something else. We are entering the widget economy. We are going there no matter what.

Of late there has been a lot of coverage around Netvibes , Pageflakes, Google Personalized Homepage, Yahoo! Pipes, Microsoft’s Connected Services. I previously wrote about Jeff Nolan’s Teqlo. Vinnie points out that ProgrammableWeb reports over 1,500 mash-ups. Netvibes is a "no-logo" Website where users have total control. it is a place where you can basically create any little information widget you like and arrange it with others on your personal page. You do so by dragging and dropping boxes that contain feeds from your favorite blogs, newspapers, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, weather service, stock charts, Gmail
Mashable writes about Netvibes rival Webwag has quietly enabled a feature that lets users post widgets from Netvibes and Google IG to a Webwag page.

Look at the way the world is changing. Loosely coupled services – we have been hearing this from the early days of web services & SOA, are suddenly getting mainstream – so much so that all these demonstrate that scalable applications can be built using widgets . RSS & Widgets are about to change the frontiers of web technology landscape itself – this opens up tremendous technical and business possibilities. It is also to be noted that by enterprise technology players that the consumer applications are fast embracing cutting edge technologies and are becoming far more successful – in terms of innovation & reach. The enterprise players need to be relevant in the changing world – by being more innovative and caring for the customers in rolling out leading edge features. When will we see large enterprise software players coming up with such things without raising noise levels(just publicity, conference talk and analyst endorsements) and let the results speak for itself.

Labels: Emerging Technologies, Emerging Trends, Innovation, Mashable Web