Windows Vista Gadgets

Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system includes support for widgets on every desktop. Windows widgets are permanently docked in a sidebar, providing up-to-date information and easy access to small tasks throughout the day. In this article I will walk you through the major components of a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget including major differentiating features, best practices, and tips for widget packaging and distribution.

Note: Microsoft calls its widgets “gadgets” in an attempt to avoid more legal battles with Apple. I refer to Microsoft Gadgets for Windows Vista Sidebar as simply “widget” throughout the article to keep things simple.

The short version

Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets are mini-applications powered by familiar web technologies. The Sidebar has three main views and user interactions — docked, flyout, and floating — for rich widget interactions. Your widgets are downloaded to the user’s desktop, unpacked, and executed in a local machine trusted state. With great power comes great responsibility, and you will want to take a few extra steps to make sure your widget is seen as a trusted part of the user’s daily computing environment. Now on to the good stuff.

Distribution and market share

Windows Vista editions

Windows Vista is the most recent edition of the Windows line of operating systems. Widgets are an included feature on every version of Windows Vista running on a computer with over 512 MB of RAM (Vista Capable).

Microsoft released Windows Vista worldwide on January 30, 2007 and was immediately included as the default operating system pre-installed on sales of new PCs. Market share numbers are always a bit fuzzy, but web analytics firm Net Applications observed a 8% market share for Windows Vista in October 2007. Vista’s current market share is significantly behind Windows XP’s 79% and only 1.4% above Mac OS X but continuously climbing as individuals and businesses purchase new computers.

Windows Visa Sidebar gadget Each new copy of Windows Vista displays an analog clock, photo slide show, and a miniature feed reader in Sidebar by default. Sidebar holds 5 widgets, leaving two spots open for your new content even if the user does not understand how to remove the defaults. Vista also ships with address book, calendar, CPU meter, currency convertor, notes, picture puzzle, stocks, and weather widgets pre-installed for easy customization. Users discover and install new widgets through Windows Live Gallery.

Miniature applications

Windows Vista widgets can take advantage of the full power of a desktop operating system. You know your widget will render like an Internet Explorer 7 webpage, playback media content in Windows Media Player, and have access to platform functions such as calendar, contacts, and feeds. Widgets are defined and described using XML and HTML. Widget content is positioned and styled using CSS. Widget application logic is powered by ActiveX, JScript (essentially JavaScript without the Sun trademark), and VBScript.

Widget execution and privileges are very similar to HTML Applications (HTAs) on the Windows platform. Your widget is rendered by MSHTML, one of the main components of Internet Explorer 7. Your widget is a packaged set of resources living inside the user’s applications directory and executes within a Local Machine Zone.

Three widget views

Windows Vista Gadgets docked flyout floating

A Windows Vista Sidebar widget has three main data views: docked to the sidebar, docked to the sidebar with an adjacent data fly-out, and a free-floating window on the user’s desktop. A successful widget should take advantage of all three use-cases to provide the best possible experience on the Vista platform.

Docked

Docked Windows Vista gadget A docked widget sits in an always visible sidebar. Users might glance at information throughout the day (e.g. current weather or a stock price), execute a quick task (e.g. jot down a quick note or execute a search), or take a quick break (e.g. solve a sudoku or picture puzzle). A docked widget is 130 pixels wide and at least 60 pixels tall.

Docked with flyout

Windows Vista Sidebar stock price gadget with flyout

A gadget can expand and provide relative, contextual information through the use of a flyout. A flyout is connected to your docked gadget but expands into the space adjoining the sidebar when a user takes action. You might display extended information in this space such as a detailed weather report, include additional context such as a stock trading chart (pictured above), or display a full media file such as a large photo or video. A widget flyout adds rich interaction directly inside the widget view without spawning a new browser window or other complex actions.

Floating

Windows Vista Sidebar weather widget floating

A floating widget detaches from the Sidebar and instead floats on the user’s desktop. Floating widgets can display more information than a desktop widget by expanding up to 400 pixels square (about a 3x increase over the sidebar’s 130 pixels). A user can choose to always have your floating widget on top of all other application windows but will most likely access your floating widgets content as a heads-up-display by specifically engaging the Sidebar application through a click or keystroke.

Image and text handlers

The Windows Sidebar g namespace helps you create background images, place text, and resize images from a DOM scriptable interface. Image helpers provide quick and easy resizing of any image asset using Vista’s built-in thumbnail tools. The GIMAGE protocol resizes and caches local images less then 256 pixels square in a much more efficient manner than a typical img element.

Access system information

Windows Vista connects Sidebar gadgets to other parts of the operating system through a special System JavaScript object. The System interface provides easy access to current machine status (e.g. CPU and memory utilization), address book contacts, e-mail messages, or even the Windows Shell. Developers can take advantage of VBScript or ActiveX for custom functionality.

Packaging

Windows Vista Sidebar security warning

Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets are distributed as a zipped archive, Windows cabinet file, or a Windows Installer 4.0 file. Each format offers its own simplicity and trust levels. You’ll need to make a few key install decisions based on your trust concerns, the features of your widget, and budget.

ZIP archive

The ZIP file format is a widely distributed compression format with compression and decompression tools present on all major operating systems. A widget publisher should simply place all widget assets in a single folder and compress its contents using their favorite ZIP compression tool. Your newly created archive should be renamed with a .gadget extension for easy recognition and handling by the Vista operating system. Vista will examine your package and decompress its content into the user’s Sidebar gadget folder.

Note: Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets should have a MIME type of application/x-windows-gadget and not application/zip. Setting the right MIME type on your server provides the appropriate desktop hooks to make sure your widget makes it beyond a download folder and into the Sidebar.

Windows Cabinet

Windows cabinet files allow publishers to digitally sign a Vista gadget for a more trusted install process. You are no longer an Unknown Publisher with a red warning shield possibly making your users think twice about installing your desktop gadget. Signed gadget publishers are mentioned by name on the install screen with a link back to their website for further information. Signed gadgets receive a yellow warning shield and an upgraded warning message of only “potentially” harming the user’s computer.

Windows digital signatures are more expensive than a free compression tool but do add some user comfort and trust during the install process. If you are a big company with thousands of downloads such as eBay or Netflix you might even already have Windows signature file assigned to your organization. If not you may want to evaluate total costs on a per-install basis and factor in a larger adoption rate for a signed gadget.

Windows Installer

Windows Installer can unpackage your cabinet file and execute a few other setup tasks to make sure the user’s computer is properly configured for your gadget. If you need to make sure the user’s registry settings allow ActiveX execution or accessing data from multiple domains you will need to use a Windows Installer to properly configure the machine for your gadget.

Sideshow

Windows Vista sideshow

Windows Sideshow connects Vista PCs to peripheral device displays such as a digital picture frame, television remote controls, or your intelligent refrigerator. Do you not have a refrigerator that connects to Windows computers on the network for the latest weather updates and new recipes? Sideshow is a very early-stage concept that might have adoption rates somewhere between a MSN Direct refrigerator magnet and a Tablet PC but is worth a mention when discussing Vista gadgets.

Vista Sidebar gadgets can be extended for use with Windows Sideshow. Many Sideshow devices are powered by the NVIDIA PREFACE platform so if you are really serious about creating widgets for a remote control or refrigerator you might program directly against the PREFACE features (formerly PortalPlayer).

Summary

Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets take advantage of the web browser, desktop scripting, rich graphics process, and multimedia capabilities of Microsoft’s latest operating system. The always-on sidebar is an attractive marketing space for widget content and a quick way to provide up-to-date information to your Windows users. The Sidebar’s prime real estate only supports about 5 widgets, so you’ll have to execute well and earn your coveted spot on your target users’ permanent screen.

Sidebar gadgets are lightweight applications coded using Web technologies already familiar to most developers. You can quickly build a simple connected gadget inside a mini HTML page or Flash Player runtime but a full-featured integration will provide a deeper engagement and more gadget views over time by taking advantage of the full features of the Windows Vista gadget platform.

Widget Basics

The total number of widget platforms and deployment options intimidate many newcomers. Each platform offers a unique audience and features, but widget basics remain the same across Windows Vista, Nokia S60, Google, MySpace. and more. In this post I will outline the basic components of a widget including static assets, user preferences, processing remote data, and rendering your final widget.

Create a default view

Every widget has an at-rest state. Your widget might have a background image or color, static text, or other fixed pieces not dependent on external data updates. You will likely define areas of your widget that will later contain the result of dynamic data updates. This at-rest state, or default view, is the first step towards a complete widget and the first thing your users will see before retrieving their custom data.

Blank weather widget

Apple’s Dashboard weather widget has a slim background with a simple layout showing the current temperature and weather condition. Today’s temperature is displayed on the right, with a degree sign built-in for data context. The current weather condition (sunny, cloudy, raining, etc) will appear in the center.

Gather custom preferences

Every widget platform supports user customizations collected using a familiar user interface and stored on the parent platform along with other user data. In some cases you might be able to tap into preference data already stored on the platform such as a user’s location, age, or preferred number of headlines per widget.

iGoogle weather preference

iGoogle’s weather widget stores both a country and a city as your weather location. A weather widget might use different data APIs by country or region, or adjust its wording based on a user’s location (i.e. Postal Code vs. ZIP Code).

Widget preference data is stored on the widget platform — Windows Vista, iGoogle, etc. — inside a user data store. Preferences can be structured as drop down lists, sliders, numbers, text, and much more depending on the data you would like to capture.

Retrieve dynamic data

Dynamic widgets receive regular data updates from a remote source and process the results. You will likely customize the data retrieved based on the user preferences defined above and create a targeted experience for each user. Data updates are often cached and processed by each widget platform to save development time and increase your widget’s performance. The data formats below can be cached and processed by the parent widget platform to produce fast response times and allow same domain access to your data.

Web feed
RSS 2.0 or Atom Syndication Format 1.0. Your site might already produce these syndicated feeds popular for distributing the latest news headlines from your site to specialized feed readers. Widget platforms typically store a subset of all available feed elements (e.g. title, content, link, and author) which may or may not meet your needs.
JSON
JavaScript Object Notation, a lightweight data interchange format. JSON offers fast processing and manipulation of custom data. Your website may already produce JSON output to power asynchronous JavaScript requests that can be extended into your widgets. Most widget platforms will convert your JSON objects into their appropriate number, text, or list types for easy manipulation by your widget.
XML
XML is a popular data interchange format for custom-defined data sent between computers and their programs. XML snippets power Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) functionality on many websites and can also provide your widgets with dynamic data updates.
Plain text
Plain text is the most lightweight data format and is swallowed whole by widget platforms. Plain text is a good data choice for small pieces of content (i.e. current temperature is 65) or complete HTML snippets you would like to insert directly into your widget. You could also process a list of comma-separated values or other forms of structured data as a plain text data source.

Creating dynamic data in an appropriate syndication format is often the first step widget publishers need to take before kicking off a broader widget program. You will need to expose your data in a syndicated format before distributing your widget.

Draw your widget

You have defined your blank widget, collected preferences and customizations from the user, and retrieved your widget’s dynamic data. You now need to place your processed data into the locations you defined in your initial view.

Your widget code should construct the appropriate HTML or Flash markup describing your updated data. In the weather widget described above we need to update the temperature field with the current temperature and display a picture corresponding to current weather conditions if available. We have already assigned an identifier to our widget’s temperature and weather condition areas, and update these elements with our latest data.

Fully composed weather widget

Pictured above is an example of a final widget view. The current weather in San Francisco is 58 degrees and cloudy.

The term “San Francisco” is a verified location based on the user’s defined preferences (you were able to interpret the input and map it to a unique identifier compatible with your data provider). Our weather API returned two pieces of data: a condition of cloudy and temperature of 58. We displayed a pre-defined picture of the cloudy weather condition inside our widget’s condition area and updated the temperature text to 58.

Summary

Every widget platform has a similar method of widget construction and processing. Available features, caching, proxies, and widget helpers vary by platform but the basic approach and mentality remains the same. You are creating a tiny application on the Web, mobile, or desktop that may respond to its environment and collect live updates from the Internet.

A provided a simplified view of a very broad development area. I’ll dive a bit deeper into each platform type and the capabilities of major widget platforms in future blog posts. This post expands on my opening slide from my recent 8-minute “high order bit” presentation at the Web 2.0 Summit.

Microsoft opens widget marketplace for Vista and Windows Live

Windows Live Gallery Marketplace

Microsoft opened a new online marketplace last night to sell a new class of desktop and web applications directly to consumers. The new version of Windows Live Gallery extends the existing Windows Live Gold partnership program with premium content listings, partner storefronts, and the ability to charge Microsoft’s users for each new widget. Microsoft’s widget marketplace uses the same Microsoft Points currency system as Xbox Live Marketplace and Zune Marketplace. The new gallery site also includes the ability to rate reviews (“4 out of 5 people found this review helpful”) and widget developers featured on the front page of the site.

Customers can buy a new widget and customize before making a final purchase. A music company might license songs bloggers can include in their Windows Live Spaces page, or The Wall Street Journal might sell a premium content widget for Vista Sidebar users. Publishers can set their own price and tap into Microsoft’s existing payment processing and currency-independent marketplace used by millions of people around the world.

The Windows Live Gallery Marketplace is the latest attempt by Microsoft to monetize small transactions on its platform. Xbox Live has been extremely popular source of tiny games such as Tetris or Zuma, helping the company reach new audiences of game players and developers alike. The new Gallery Marketplace opens up Microsoft’s platform as a paid distribution endpoint for content from around the web, which should shake things up a bit as new platforms consider new ways to help their developers monetize applications and content.

Google releases stand-alone desktop widget engine

iGoogle Desktop widgets

Google Desktop widgets can now be embedded in your iGoogle personal start page. This new functionality adds OS-level functionality such as CPU utilization, currently playing tracks in iTunes, or a battery indicator inside a Web interface. Google Desktop 5.5 is now available in a widget-only version for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista to bridge the desktop and Web worlds.

The decoupling of Google Desktop Sidebar puts its desktop widget platform in direct competition with Windows Vista Sidebar and Konfabulator. Google can use its widget platform as a beachhead onto the desktop and later encourage its users to enable more Google Desktop features such as search and personalization.

(Disclosure: Google is a sponsor of my upcoming widget conference, Widget Summit.)

Widget Summit schedule complete

The Widget Summit schedule is now complete, and I am pretty happy with the results. My goal for the conference is to provide two days of intensive education about the current state of the widget industry and share best practices with the many new publishers entering the space. This year’s conference spans two days, October 15-16, covering both the business and implementation of widgets. I will share some of my speaker notes before the conference, but first let’s take a look at some of the overarching themes of Widget Summit.

I’ve invited the key people behind the platforms to share their first-hand expert knowledge and answer detailed question. You’ll hear from the creator of the Facebook Platform, Dave Fetterman, instead of a vision talk or summary from Mark Zuckerberg. I’m sure Mark might sell more tickets, but you can read the history of Facebook in your favorite business press.

Mobile

We’ll have the heads of third party widget development for both Nokia S60 and Apple iPhone on stage talking about new ways developers can create rich applications for smartphones. Yes, Apple does have a small team dedicated to independent software developers on the iPhone.

We’ll also have University of Maryland professor Ben Bederson sharing his many years of experience designing for mobile displays and interfaces.

Monetization

Publishers are pretty familiar with measurement and monetization of traffic on their own websites, but widgets are still a source of confusion. Traditional web measurement tools such as Google Analytics have extended their reach into widgets. We’ve also seen new widget-specific entrants such as Clearspring and Gigya wrap widgets in a proprietary container for new forms of measurement. All three companies will present during the Widget Measurement panel at Widget Summit.

Once you have measured your widget audience, how do you monetize? Traditional advertising solutions such as DoubleClick have extended their reach to power in-widget advertising. VP of Rich Media Ari Paparo will share the latest ways big companies are experimenting with widget advertising. We will also have some of the largest widget-specific advertising networks on stage, virtual currency site Peanut Labs and widget promotion network RockYou. The Widget Advertising panel will present widgets as a new revenue source for content syndication.

Implementation

It’s not enough to simply talk about building a Facebook application or a Dashboard widget. Publishers want to know how much work is involved, the skills needed to create widget content for each platform, and the features necessary to make sure their investment in time and money is ultimately successful. We’ll have sessions at Widget Summit that walk you through the steps needed to create an application on Facebook, a sidebar widget for Windows Vista, or a JavaScript widget for blog sidebars.

If a widget book existed it would likely be out of date at the time of printing. The best way to learn about the latest technologies and implementations is to directly engage the creators of the widget platform and the people creating new widget content every day. They will help you avoid common mistakes, expose a few short cuts, and make sure you don’t make some of the most common mistakes.

Summary

Widget Summit is just over a week away and should provide an in-depth education for anyone considering a widget strategy or deeper syndication involvement. The schedule is now complete, with some of the best available speakers in their subject areas sharing their expert knowledge on stage. Each speaker is directly involved in widgets at his or her company, and uniquely positioned to answer in-depth questions either on-stage or in the audience.

Tickets are still available if you would like to join us for two days of widget education and networking.

Widget nomenclature

Widget terminology often confuses newcomers. The variance of terms — widget, gadget, module, badge, button, etc. — can create impressions of a fragmented industry in its early days, not able to agree on anything as simple as a name. In this post I will walk you through the etymology and nomenclature of widgets and its variances. I interpret each term as a separate meaning, not a synonym, depending on the structure and use of widget content.

A “widget” is a generic term for a manufactured object. The word first occurs in the 1924 Broadway play Beggar on Horseback as an object with no real value, yet mass produced for common usage. The main character is torn between his poor living as an artist creating things he enjoys, or a job in a factory creating meaningless “widgets.” In economics we reference a widget as a generic object that should not distract from the example at hand. We reference Bob’s Widget Shop instead of Bob’s Donut Shop to focus on the growth numbers, optimum pricing, and other aspects of economics where the details of a donut are irrelevant.

The term “widget” is also used to describe the basic building blocks of a desktop operating system’s graphical user interface. Desktop application developers can take advantage of standard user interface libraries such as a menu, buttons, or display pane. Ralph Swick and Mark Ackerman of MIT chose this word for the X Window System in 1988. The term is still used today in the desktop development space to describe building new user interfaces.

We chose this term since all other common terms were overloaded with inappropriate connotations. We offer the observation to the skeptical, however, that the principal realization of a widget is its associated X window and the common initial letter is not un-useful.

The familiar idea of a desktop building block is easily extended to the world of Konfabulator “widgets.” Associating the name of Konfabulator’s customizable objects with the small configuration tools of the OS helped desktop developers more quickly grasp the new concept blending Web and desktop technologies.

Web widgets

Apple owns the trademark on the term “web widget” for “software for use in creating other Internet and web-based software.” Large international corporations such as Microsoft and Google likely conducted a trademark search and stayed away from the term for their web products, instead opting to use “gadget.”

Personalized homepages such as iGoogle and Live.com refer to the multiple components of their pages as “modules” within their source code, which makes sense in a web context.

Web badge

Made on a Mac A web badge is the bumper sticker of the Internet. Web badges are small pieces of flair placed in a site’s sidebar or footer to display an affiliation with a group or cause. Over the years we have seen small images promoting a site’s XHTML or CSS compliance, an author’s support for a political candidate, or fans of the Chicago Bears or Apple computers proudly displaying their support.

Dynamic web badges might pull in the total money raised for a campaign or display the score from last night’s Cubs game to improve its usefulness and impact.

Web button

Digg this button A web button is a small piece of interactive content placed on a web page. Web buttons prompt the user to take action by adding the page to their bookmarks, adding a vote on a social news site, or viewing related content. The most popular web buttons such as Digg and del.icio.us integrate live contextual data with a call to action.

Plug-ins

Widget plugins are integrated pieces of a site’s publishing experience. Plugins operate on an author’s server and can take full advantage of server-side scripting, template integrations, and site-wide publishing preferences. Popular blogging tools Drupal, Movable Type, and WordPress support sidebar widgets powered by plugins.

Summary

Widgets come in many shapes, sizes, and functions and luckily there are specific terms to describe each. Desktop widgets, personal homepage modules, webpages pages, blog post buttons, blog sidebar widgets and plugins all describe what we generically call widgets.

A brief widget history

The widget technology we take for granted today has been over 25 years in the making. Small pieces of customized desktop and web content have made their way into our lives whether you call it an accessory, a widget, a web part, or a gadget. Below is a visual timeline of widget history and a brief summary of how some of today’s widget sectors got their start.

Widget timeline displaying major events in widget history.

Desk ornaments

Widget concepts date back to the invention of the graphical user interface for home use. Bud Tribble and Andy Hertzfeld brainstormed a concept named “desk ornaments” in 1981 for the original Macintosh operating system. These ornaments, later renamed accessories, wrapped small computing functions such as a calculator, notepad, or simple games within a single application.

Personalized homepage

Netscape PowerStart was a personal start page application built-in to the Netscape Navigator web browser in 1996. PowerStart was released just two weeks after the original My Yahoo! and included many of the dynamic web page concepts we use today. PowerStart combined your latest e-mail, stock quotes, weather reports, and other pieces of data from the web and desktop into a single page. Popular homepage components were powered by Java, dynamically loaded JavaScript content, and other technologies we now take for granted. Yahoo! released My Yahoo! two weeks before PowerStart, and the web world now had access to customized information.

Desktop widgets

In October 2000 Stardock released a new GUI engine for Windows named DesktopX. Custom objects display system information such as CPU and memory utilization, news tickers, and live updates from the Web.

Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke released Konfabulator for Mac OS X as a shareware side project in 2003 and it quickly grew into its own company, Pixoria. Konfabulator blended web technologies such as JavaScript with the desktop rendering strengths of OS X. Pixoria was acquired by Yahoo! in July 2005.

Summary

The fancy widgets timeline is a much more fun way to browse the last 25 years of widget history. The biggest surprise compiling the list was just how close some related events occurred.

Google introduces Gadget Ads

Google officially launched Google Gadgets as an ad unit tonight after about three months of pilot testing. Google’s AdWords platform now supports Google Gadget content in addition to existing text, image, and video offerings. The gadget ads feature an entirely new widget analytics platform for tracking gadget success and interaction, an open caching proxy hosted by Google’s geo-distributed servers, and the introduction of YouTube as a video hosting and transcoding platform free from any Google branding. I previously covered Google’s upcoming advertising widgets in early May.

Intel Centrino Duo Google Gadget advertisement

Advertisers can create Google Gadget content in any size supported by AdWords images. In the example shown above Intel combined a Flash game with tabs displaying images and text with more information on the Intel Centrino Duo mobile processor. Each gadget interaction is recorded according to a set list of actions such as mouse over, tab views, entering a ZIP code, subscribing to a web feed, or initiating audio or visual playback. External links such as a visit to an external website pass through Google trackers for CPC billing.

Mixed Media

Starbucks meeting planner Google Gadget

Gadget ads provide new mixed media interactions across Google’s AdSense network. A Starbucks ad unit could display a web feed of the latest 5 tracks playing in its stores, query the local weather and suggest either an iced or hot drink, display local stores on a Google Map, and help you browse seasonal offerings from within a single ad unit. Google serves all of the content via proxy, and the rich media load never touches Starbucks’ servers.

Gadget ads also integrate with DoubleClick’s DART for tracking as part of a larger portfolio. Google is currently limiting the number of publishers with access to widget advertising due to its more technical nature but existing Flash advertisers may already have the option exposed in AdWords.

YouTube ad hosting

Google is promoting YouTube as a video hosting and transcoding destination for advertisers. The Google Gadget Ads tutorial page includes detailed instructions for separating hosted Flash video content from an advertiser’s video playback tools. This tutorial is the first time I have seen Google promote the use of YouTube in an without Google branding.

Open caching proxy

Google will cache almost any content passed to its gadget caching proxy including images, CSS, and JavaScript.

http://gmodules.com/ig/proxy?url= + your URL

Google delivers any file on your behalf from its thousands of servers distributed around the globe. It’s like your own free CDN for your websites, although primarily designed for gadget content. I can cache my site’s CSS through Google for example.

Summary

Online advertising is big business and the primary monetization engine of new web startups. Google’s expansion of its dominant AdWords product into the widget space should extend the demand for quality gadget developers and designers, and bring even more attention to the space. Each advertisement is also listed in the Google Gadgets branded content directory, which may cause some product fans to integrate branded interactions for free on their blogs or personal homepage.

Google is currently promoting gadget developers and companies experienced in Google Gadget development and design. It seems like a really good way to get exposure and potential contracts from big clients such as Honda or Coca-Cola. Designers and widget programmers may want to go get listed and take advantage of some new revenue opportunities.

It’s always exciting to see new advertising options emerge that may have richer interaction experiences and therefore drive a higher CPM. I added AdSense to my blog entry pages a few months ago hoping I might catch a new gadget ad in action — it’s so far not creating much revenue — and I now expect even more regular Google Gadget content matched with my pages.

Widget advertising is one of the emerging widget topics we will cover at this year’s Widget Summit event October 15-16 in San Francisco.

Widget Summit 2007

Widget Summit logo

I am hosting a two-day widget conference October 15–16 in San Francisco. Widget Summit is the sequel to last year’s Widgets Live! conference that attracted 250 people from around the world to learn about an emerging trend called widgets. This year’s conference will once again educate and connect an industry of publishers, toolmakers, service providers, and developers across multiple widget platforms.

A lot has changed in the widget industry over the past year. We’re still experiencing what Newsweek named 2007 The Year of the Widget and based on the first 8 months they may be right.

  • Apple’s iPhone has sparked new interest in mobile phone development in the United States based on web standards such as CSS and JavaScript.
  • The next version of Nokia’s S60 widgets, expected next month, will add widgets to Europe’s best-selling handsets.
  • Windows Vista adds desktop widgets to the world’s most popular operating system.
  • The Facebook Platform allows publishers to reach over 30 million Facebook users through its widget canvas.
  • iGoogle is Google’s fastest growing product.
  • My Yahoo! relaunched its popular homepage with rich widget interaction support.
  • Internet television services such as Joost and Verizon FiOS TV now support widget overlays.

Conference format

Widget Summit is a two-day conference covering the product and development side of side of widget development. The first day will introduce attendees to the many different types of widget platforms, monetization options, and new products that are changing the industry. The second day of the conference will teach attendees how to implement widget technologies and ensure continued success.

Widgets are now a part of mainstream product planning and development. Publishers are aware of widget platforms such as MySpace, Facebook, and Windows but unsure how they should be involved or what work is needed to integrate syndicated widget content with existing site offerings.

I would like to provide industry-leading widget education and networking opportunities in a collaborative environment. Attendees should leave the conference with a better understanding of widget technologies, new products affecting the space, and in-depth knowledge from a few hundred similarly-minded individuals.

Improved venue, WiFi

Last year’s venue was a bit crowded in both space and bandwidth. I have had my eye on the newly constructed conference center at UCSF Mission Bay for a few years and I am excited to finally host my first conference at these facilities.

Space

Attendees will have enough space for private meetings and conversations. The main auditorium can seat up to 500 attendees and wide hallways really opens up the conference flow. Everyone should have plenty of room to stretch out if they desire.

Fiber

Hosting a few hundred web technology professionals seems to always clog the bandwidth pipes. I decided to locate the conference on a fiber terminus and lease a few extra lines for backup. Early bandwidth tests show download speeds of 50 Mbps and upload speeds of 60 Mbps with low latencies.

Buy a ticket!

Widget Summit tickets are $500 and available now. Last year’s conference sold out, so be sure to buy a ticket early.

Flash Player adds H.264, AAC support

Adobe Flash logo Yesterday Adobe released a beta version of its Flash Player browser plugin capable of decoding H.264 video, AAC audio, and associated rich metadata. Web browsers utilizing Flash 9.0.60.184 or higher will now be able to playback content encoded for digital television, iPods, and high-end mobile phones using international standards. Adobe’s support for these standardized audio and video codes will streamline the production process for desktop and web video, hopefully reducing time-to-market and opening more video catalogs to online viewers. A beta version of the new player, Flash Player 9 Update 3 Beta 2 “Moviestar”, is available from Adobe Labs.

Flash video sites such as MySpace or YouTube currently encode video content using the On2 TrueMotion VP6 codec and MP3 audio built-in to Flash 8 and above. Some sites also output content in H.264 with AAC audio for playback on handheld devices such as the iPod, iPhone, or Nokia N-series handsets. The new Flash Player lets publishers skip the extra step of VP6 encoding and pipe in H.264 content using their existing web players. Flash programs rely on the same NetStream method used for existing Flash video with a few new optional callbacks for metadata and encoding types.

Adobe licensed core codec technologies from MainConcept for x86, PowerPC, and ARM processor architectures. The new media technologies will be bundled with the next major Flash Player release and Adobe AIR (formerly code-named Apollo), both expected this Fall. The new technology will also power Adobe Media Player (formerly code-named Philo), expected in early 2008.

Hardware acceleration

AAC and H.264 are ISO standards introduced in 1997 and 2003 respectively. Over the past 4-10 years hardware manufacturers have introduced specialized hardware encoders and decoders for the professional video industry to speed-up the production and presentation process. Like most new hardware technologies initial solutions cost thousands of dollars and were beyond the reach of most consumers but we’re finally starting to see low-priced hardware optimized for multimedia encoding and decoding. The recent acceleration in hardware encoding and decoding solutions is partially driven by the large data processing requirements of high-definition H.264 video on Blue-ray and HD-DVD media.

Current H.264 hardware sampling

Enhanced metadata support

Flash Player now supports 3GPP time text tracks, iTunes metadata (“ilst” atom), and chapter listings for easy-to-navigate playback and searchability. Flash developers will need to listen for and handle each format but publishers may choose to output a full transcript or keyword markers with every video.

Chapters technology lets publishers addressable parts of a movie. The nightly news might contain a chapter marker for each story or a music video countdown might list the start of each new video as a distinct chapter.

Timed text is a closed-caption format for audio and video. A content producer might sync a full transcript to audio or video input to improve the parsing abilities of search engines, foreign language translations, or persons with disabilities.

Technical notes

The new Flash player decodes Base, Main, and High H.264 profiles and Main, LC, and HE AAC profiles. Sound is mixed down to two-channels and resampled to 44.1Khz according to Adobe developer Tinic Uro. This downmixing is a limitation of the current Flash sound engine, which dates back to 1996 and will likely need to be rewritten for the current publishing environment and ActionScript 3 architecture.

There is currently no support for third-party streaming services. Media companies who would like to stream H.264 and AAC content to the new Flash Players need to use the upcoming Flash Media Server 3.

Summary

Web video and its production process just received a major upgrade with Adobe’s latest decoders in Flash 9. New opportunities for hardware acceleration, streamlined encoding, and multiple device support will increase the amount of video available for playback within web pages. Media companies have a new level of archival confidence this week as well, with one major international formatting option delivering quality video for the foreseeable future.

We will not see a change in online video overnight. Once Adobe releases the final version of this new Flash 9 player users will need to upgrade, either automatically through the Player’s built-in update system or through a separate download, before publishers can feel confident switching their Flash video players to H.264 sources.

One big story that has yet to play out is Flash Lite and AIR on mobile systems. Adobe would like to compete with Microsoft and Sun in this application space and already has a major proving ground in Japan. Flash Lite 3 is based on Flash 8 and already shipping on devices such as Chumby so it may be too late for the ActionScript 3 player paired with the underlying ARM codecs. Adobe AIR may be bundled separately with mobile carrier contracts and is expected to have Flash 9 features such as H.264 and AAC included.