Cow Contraptions, Grazr Gadgets and Widge-ups

Tom Morris built a Grazr module for the Google personalized homepage IG (what the hell does that stand for? "I Google"?) and followed up with a Cow Contraption (great name!) to configure it with your own OPML and other settings.

Just in case that's still a little too complicated for you I've modified Tom's code to produce an Open Irish Directory module. Just click on that link to add it to your homepage. Don't you just love gadgets and widgets :-)

Speaking of which, Fergus Burns of Nooked has started a conversation around widget marketing. Stowe Boyd says -

"This is an area of great innovative potential, since widgets are a way for non-programmers to adorn their social world with complex, sophisticated applets that integrate information, act as mashups, or publish elements of their social personae without programming.

This ties in with my theory that the blog, the MySpace, the Webtop, the Start Page are all converging towards a sort of MyMe, a digital representation of ourselves. Think of it as a 2D avatar and in the same way that we 'dress up' our 3D avatars in virtual worlds we'll want to dress up our 2D avatars with widgets.

Not only that but the more sophisticated widgets will be like the tools and weapons we find in our Second Lives, enhancing the ability of our digital representations to interact with other avatars on a agent-like basis.

Technorati Tags: widgets, gadgets, myspace