• Business Week, Monday, March 3, 2008 11 AM

Business Week devotes today's Technology page (link: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/) to the wonderful world of widgets, providing anything from advice on how to build your brand using widgets, to widget anecdotes, a CEO guide, and a point-counterpoint argument on their validity as a marketing platform.

Widgets are embeddable software programs that users pass along to each other and download to their customizable homepages or social networking profiles. Some, like Scrabulous or Parking Wars, are undeniable hits, surpassing marketing execs' expectations as users repeatedly interact with the programs and send them to friends. Others, fall well short of expectations. Just ask Blockboster, Hallmark and Verizon.

By and large, widgets are cheap, interactive software programs with a high risk-reward, which makes them worth the gamble to many marketers versus a banner ad. Electronic Arts, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Gap and HP are creating programs to raise brand awareness, but the main challenge is sustaining users' interest over a long period of time.

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