• October 28, 2008

Clearspring Technologies has vaulted into the top spot among widget networks in September with 254 million unique viewers worldwide, according to comScore's latest Widget Metrix report.

The company attributes its nearly 60% audience growth since August to its acquisition of social bookmarking site AddThis as well as new partnerships with publishers such as MetroLyrics and SnagFilms. The surge pushed Clearspring well past former category leader Gigya, which saw its viewers worldwide drop from 174 million to 161 million from August to September.

Clearspring had 101 million viewers in the U.S., representing a 43% monthly gain. The company says its platform allows Web widgets to be shared across more than 80 social networks, blogs and bookmarking services. Like Gigya and other widget distributors, it has also launched its own ad network to help monetize the content-sharing it enables.

Liza Hausman, vice president for marketing at Gigya, said the addition of new publisher partners in the next month would help to significantly boost its reach.--Mark Walsh