Widgets are dead, long live widgets

Widgets, portable pieces of Web code, have become synonymous with interactive Web page components, often Flash-based games and ads can stick out like a sore thumb. Functions are great, but they need to be seamless.

Instead of just offering a page function, the widget technology is turning out native applications that blend seamlessly with newsfeeds and spread virally through friend lists. Accordingly, the w-word had to go and this morning iWidgets became Transpond. Transpond, a word that actually doesn't mean anything, calls to mind words like "translate" and "respond," more positive connotations than the has-been widget.

Widgets have moved to the wrong side of the hype cycle while apps have their own catch phrase ("There's an app for that.") Meanwhile, the underlying trend that powers what Transpond founder Peter Yared calls the "the atomization of the Web" remains strong.

Transpond offers an easy-to-use platform for creating native applications for Facebook, MySpace, and iGoogle and it's been humming along since its launch (as iWidgets) last summer. The company has big-name customers including CBS, CNN, Lifetime Television, and Revision3, all of whom had turned to the platform to get their content onto social networks.

Content publishers, marketers, and businesses can no longer slap up a Web site and expect to have an audience. Content has to find its audience wherever they happen to be, whether it's hanging out on Facebook or fiddling with their iPhone. Be it via widget or app, delivering the right content in the right way (with a bonus for interactivity) is the only thing that really matters.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

[zyxxy]

I wonder how the company Transpond Global Solution will feel about the name change.

[inachu1]

The only insightful thing they can do is when all apps are closed and you just sit there looking at your inactive desktop with the widget just either scrolling info or some other type of live data streaming.

Might be good for the stock market or for a helpdesk when a tiocket case is opened.
So we just sit there waiitng for something to happen..... boring.

[Cameochi]

To transpond is means to respond and transmit data as in a transponder - a device used for satellite communications and aircraft. They are extremely useful and can be used to strategic logistical data. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transponder. I think the term "Widget" sounds less invasive than a transpond(er) which can be used to spy on people although they function the same way.

[Remo_Williams]

Maybe the reporter meant, "Transpond doesn't actually mean anything *to me*, and I'm too lazy to fact-check".

Widget, app, whatever. It's just code, and code wars eternally revolve around language, platform, performance, and utility. Of the four, utility is the only one that matters at first, and we should be maturing in the scope of utility. Now it's about platform ubiquity -- hey, there's a new word for the reporter to learn -- and that has language and performance issues. Everyone has a favorite widget engine, no two are like, and not one works on every single platform. Hurrah, no news.

[PeterYared]

Hey Dave, thanks for writing about us! Yes, "transpond" is actually a real word in the telecommunications field that means to amplify a message on a different frequency... which is what we do, we take your stuff and make it viral on new platforms. :) Peter