• September 7, 2007

USA Today is offering readers the ability to install "widgets" on their blogs and personal Web pages that contain news updates and other information from the newspaper.

Widgets are a Web accessory that people are using in rapidly growing numbers to jazz up their home pages, blogs and profiles on social networking platforms like Facebook or MySpace. They are aimed at making money through advertising offered on them, though no advertisers have signed up so far, USA Today spokeswoman Alex Nicholson tells The Associated Press.

The newspaper's widgets are compatible with many blogging platforms and social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Typepad and Google Inc.'s iGoogle.

The first three USA Today widgets are all related to travel. The ones to be offered in coming weeks will have news on pop culture, top headlines and celebrities and informational graphics like those that run on the paper's front page.--Tanya Irwin