Widget maker Gigya gets $11 million Series C

Looks like they're battening down the hatches: Social-network apphaus Gigya has raised $11 million in a Series C funding round led by DAG Ventures.

President and co-founder Rooly Eliezerov called it a "pre-emptive round" in a release Wednesday; the company's Series B round was only seven months ago. But Gigya insists that this new funding is to keep up demand, not to have some disaster insurance in the face of the current financial situation.

Still, economic crisis notwithstanding, Gigya and its brethren may still have a tough road ahead: Blogger Nick O'Neill recently found that traffic to a Facebook app he created tanked after the social network instituted a controversial redesign that relegates many third-party widgets to a "Boxes" tab.

Facebook's obviously not the only platform for social widgets, but it's been the poster child for apps ever since the Facebook Platform made its debut in May 2007. Could it be a bellwether for the industry? Absolutely.

Disclosure: CNET is a Gigya partner.

[scottrafer]

@Caroline FB isn't representative in this case, nor are they indicative of things to come. The issue that Nick posted on is almost entirely related to the FB redesign. Nick used the term "widget" in a way almost no one else does, and confusingly so. It's an imprecise term at the best of times, but he abused it.

The widgets Gigya focuses on are unrelated to FB or OpenSocial apps, live in the sidebars of blogs, on myspace pages, etc.

[lookery does a small amount of business with Gigya.]