Just when you think that only information and updates are the only things that widgets can provide, ModiFace Inc. has turned towards widgets to help in handling style and makeovers for better personal beauty. So for people who want to play around with how they would want a look, hairstyles paired with an uploaded high-quality frontal personal photo and you are on your way.
So score one more advantage for widget technology as they now cover the area of beauty and improvement. Hairstyling online was something that nobody expected to happen and through proper directives and uploaded hair styles to choose from on the servers of affiliated and partner sites of ModiFace, people can see which fancies them the best.
“The new widgets are fully-functional and customizable for the partner site,” remarked Lisa Leung, Director of Operations at ModiFace, Inc. “For example, for the hairstyling widget, website administrators and partner companies can upload and modify their own model hairstyles as often as they wish in order to offer whatever combination of hairstyles they desire.”
The hairstyling widget is based on the popular HairMixer application, which simulates what users would look like with virtually any hairstyle they can find on the web. A user can simply upload a high-quality frontal personal photo and choose the hairstyle that they would most like to have replicated. The application employs its unique face-recognition technology to coordinate the new hairstyle with the face represented in the original photo. The resulting simulation is a realistic representation of the photo’s subject wearing the desired hairstyle.
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So with this simulation and option made available these days to people particular about beauty and looks, technology now offers a wider array of options that pry away widgets mainly from being used as channels for updates and networking.
Making life easier for people who frequent the web is the primary directive that most online investing companies should focus on. Thus, with widgets, a larger area of scope can be covered. People think highly of widgets but being versed on what they can do outside that of being updated and channeling through the web, widgets can be bundled with software downloads through partnership programs so that directing potential customers can be made easier.
Widget technology is indeed something that has been restricted towards people adept with technology and the web. Not all people are familiar with the various fruits of the web and this includes widgets. Widgets are a good marketing tool and to appreciate what they can do as far as online marketing is concerned, distributing them wisely like perhaps in bundled software downloads through affiliations can increase their use and the customer base as well.
The way the system works is simple and user-friendly. In short, Install IQ bundles the primary widget download with other high-demand software—like the Yahoo! Toolbar and the Weatherbug Desktop widget. If a user accepts one of these optional offers during the install, the widget marketer makes money—up to $1 in most cases. To prevent inadvertent installs, Install IQ deploys a unique download manager that allows the user to pause or cancel at any time.
The intelligence inside W3i’s unique installation system continues to impress by allowing for customization, optimization, and suppression. Marketers can leverage their brand equity throughout the entire installation process with images and text. The bundled software offered during installation can be optimized for target marketing. And if the software is already installed on the user’s desktop, Install IQ suppresses the offer and suggests an alternative download. Finally, in an age when best practices in privacy on the Web are carefully monitored, Install IQ holds up under scrutiny by being the first installation system to receive certification in the TRUSTe Trusted Download program.
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All eyes will be on Beijing come this August and one thing that people will be looking for on the web would be the results of the games of this event. Everyone knows that if you want information fast, the web is the place to be. Now if you really want it faster and on your desktop, you may want to make use of the NBCU’s Digital Olympics widgets that will be offering NBC’s Olympic coverage.
NBCOlympics.com will provide approximately 2,200 hours of live streaming broadband coverage of Olympic competition where users can choose from up to 20 concurrent streams encompassing 25 Olympic sports. In addition, the site will offer more than 3,000 hours of on-demand access to full-event replays and extensive highlights, including daily recaps of key events, best-of montages, commentator analysis and athlete-specific clips.
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With practically the whole world watching and seeing how their homegrown athletes far in Beijing, you can imagine the large audience aching to find out what would transpire during the games. Television would be a good alternative but considering that among the bystanders include people who have to go to the office, clicking on your browser or the widget offered by NCBU is a good alternative which may even put you ahead when it comes to updates on the Olympic games.
If there is something most of us have not noticed is that widgets offer a form of branding in a sense. We all view widgets as another mode of channeling and marketing but identifying widgets by finding out where they originate is technically a branding practice if you look at it up and close.
Widgets have their own designs and interface. Technically these are another aspect of widget technology. Looks and how they can be used differ and for each person that will pretty much be important. Updates may be presented in a different manner and depending on how they are configured (if they do allow user interface), widgets can be a great solution to resolve a lot of personal preferences many of us have today.
We have seen Yahoo and some news sites offer widgets that can be placed on your desktops. Some even have website interface. Overall, they cater to exposure as well although the work behind the belief that they were made to make life easier for us. For the analytic people these days, you know that there is something more than just serving and making it easier for the people today. Branching out through widgets is a given and people who use them can help measure how many people today actually use these widgets.
For what it is worth, it is a great brainchild as far as marketing and using technology today. Branding is hard to establish but with widgets these days, a lot of identity is being poured out especially if you talk about the number of people who love to use widgets.
Branding with Widgets
One thing about widget applications on social networking sites, you will get noticed for sure. And this does not only cover areas on how entertaining and wacky they may be, violence and offending activities may put you in trouble as well.
At least this is what the UK anti-knife crime group. While social networking game applications are meant to serve as entertainment, they still play a critical role in motivating and stirring up ideas for people who are using them. Actually, they get ideas from what they see on the web and most of them are not at all comforting.
The application in the limelight is the Superpoke application which had to take out the shank or knife their friends feature. The application was actually developed by Slider.com which primarily provides widgets or plug-ins for several social networking sites, including Bebo and MySpace.
This feature was removed following public outrage as the UK anti-knife crime group Urban Concepts’ Raymond Stewart said it was “appalling” that this game was allowed to exist on a site heavily visited by teenagers.
The game was also heavily criticised by the uncle of Harry Potter actor, Rob Knox, who was stabbed to death outside a pub in the UK earlier this year by two men armed with knives.
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So just in case you are wondering what happened to that feature on Superpoke the next time you open your Facebook account, don’t be surprised. It has been taken out for your own good!
Similar to any relationship, complementing one another would be the key ingredients to the success of anything. Now this does not solely limit itself towards people, it happens in the world of business and technology itself.
For a business to flourish, it needs the cooperation of various sections that make it successful. In this case, the gaming world will only be successful with the support of proper channeling to draw in the ones who will be endorsing them. In the case of games brought to the consumer, channeling them through modern widgets is one good way to flourish any online game developed for attention.
To the avid computer geek, widgets can get them updated regularly. Not only does it allow them an easier way to follow the things that are happening today, it has also allowed the hardcore gamers to be a step ahead of the others. This stems from the fact that any addicted gamer would want to find the latest developments as far as new games and strategies on a particular game is concerned. It is leverage for them and widgets are aimed to do just that.
Other than being a tunnel for information and updates, it remains that gamers often want to be advanced. It is not cheating. It is simply showing that you are a hardcore gamer that takes it seriously. While you can always search for the latest using your favorite search engine, widgets can save you all the trouble. That is why both games and widgets complement each other. The former can only succeed with the latter.
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If you think widgets are plainly offered to make life easier for you and provide updates on the site that it is linking to, think again. Widgets are now also becoming a gateway for most game software developers such as Zumobi. While they are normally believed to provide updates, here is another dimension of widgets that has not been given much attention. In short, there are more to widgets that placing them on your desktop or better yet, mobile phone.
The target here is obviously the mobile computing industry. A lot of people are putting to good use their gadgets such as the most celebrated iPhone to which allows them to connect to the web directly. Mobile gadgets are normally not seen as containing these gaming software. But for the people who want to put something else in their computers, this is perhaps something that can allow them to download and install games as they wish to do so.
“Almost every user has at least two games,” he said. “Even the knowledge workers, who you might think will just have stock news and other financial stuff, like to have video game news, or games.”
Check out WidSets, Nokia’s widget platform, and its library of widgets that includes 27 pages in the Fun and Games category. Yahoo’s Go for Mobile application has lots of games widgets, too, while Zumobi’s Games & Humor category is also worth a look.
The point is, all these new mobile widget platforms are getting increasing distribution.
(Source) Pocket Gamers Biz
If you think about it, the idea is brilliant. Although this was never seen to be a great benefit and alternative, it is slowly being realized as the people in the tech world are exploring further benefits that they can get from widgets other than news and updates on their mobile devices.
One thing that makes sites successful these days is through interaction and allowing visitor to share their opinion as well as being able to solicit advice. Rather than limiting it to the point where bloggers or authors are the ones that control the flow of conversations, posts and comments, RSS widgets allows people to be updated on replies and current topics that can perhaps entice them to make a comment or two.
There are a lot of widgets that allows site owners to do this today. Spring Widgets and Grazr are among the leading RSS widget service providers you can check out. With a suggestion box in tow, you are sure to get more people into the fray and not to mention provide that much wanted interaction that sites long to have.
We have been getting a lot of customers asking how they can post and promote their suggestions on their website. Each SuggestionBox has its own unique RSS feed that displays the most recently updated public suggestions. You can view the feed for SuggestionBox here. Here are a few very simple widget platforms that let you integrate your suggestions into your site. They all allow you to customize the look and feel and dynamically update.
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All you have to do is pick one. Try it out and see the difference. For sure somewhere along the way, you will find that one of these widgets will bolster your site as far as popularity and traffic for people who become hooked on to it.
Organization is important for the common executive today and as far as being able to keep track of your daily appointments and schedules, the presence of an organizer on your desktop as a useful widget is something that will really be of excellent use to you.
Organized is a widget brought to you by iSlayer.com. It is basically a calendar widget that makes sure you keep track of your daily schedule. For the travelers, keeping track of the various time frames of various time zones is an added feature so that the next time you have to keep an appointment of make a call, you will know the exact time to do so.
Organized has the same features as the usual organizers and planners that most people have. But with this widget, you can simply click on it on your MAC and check from time to time on daily appointments and things to do without missing a beat anymore.
Organized, from iSlayer.com is a handy and elegant calendar widget which helps you keep your schedule organized. On the spare, but sleek tabbed interface you’ll find handy world clocks for different time zones; Notes for reminders and thoughts; Events to give you a heads up of the days appointments; and a ToDo tab for todo lists. Each of the categories are very smartly done, with options like the ability to show due dates for your todo lists, and the ability to create multiple calenders for separate tasks. What’s more it shares the same database as iCal and Mail, so whatever changes you make you know you’re always in sync.
Organized is a free Widget for Mac OS X 10.5, but in the interest of the continued development of cool programs, I should point out they politely request you consider a donation. I think once you see how easy it is to stay organized, and the way it works with iCal and Mail, you just might throw a few dollars their way.
(Source) Download.com
If you are an avid follower of E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), then you might want to check out this widget that you can place on your desktop. With much of the new gadgets and games to be launched, the E3 widgets can help you save a lot when it comes to knowing what is going on and when they will eventually be shown. The E3 widget can be downloaded here.
The coverage of this event is what is really important. For sure, geeks and techies will want to see what latest offerings are in store for them in this electronic trade show which will be broadcasted via Livewire Web Show.
You can just imagine what Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have in store. For sure these big three will showcase new components and programs that will take the technology world by storm once again. Once you get the widget and save it to your desktop, all you have to do is see when the broadcasts will be made and you don’t have to worry about missing them. This live broadcast is held every year so if you missed last year, be sure not to miss it this time around!
In addition to our regular written coverage, we’ll be broadcasting our LiveWire Web show again this year. On LiveWire, you can watch all three major press conferences. We’ll also be broadcasting live from the E3 show floor with developer interviews, real-time game demos and analysis from the IGN editors for the entire week. While we’ll be offering a low-quality stream for free, Insiders will enjoy high-quality streams throughout the show.
(Source) IGN
