The third-round funding brings Gigya's total raised so far to $23.5 million since starting two years ago. The company has served more than 150 million widgets as of June--up from 120 million in March, according to comScore.

Its widget distribution and tracking technologies are used by brand marketers, including MTV, Sprint and Toyota.

Most recently, Gigya has introduced a new service--Gigya Socialize--that lets sites add social networking features such as the ability to invite friends to participate and see what they are doing through a newsfeed.

Gigya competes with widget distributors such as Slide, Clearspring and Widgetbox, with each finding eager investors. Clearspring raised $18 million in May, while Slide and Widgetbox earlier pulled down $50 million and $8 million rounds, respectively.

Gigya's financing shows that--for now at least--the financial crisis looming over both the advertising and venture industries is not ending funding for the widget business.--Mark Walsh

This news story is important. I recommend that everyone read it.