NewsGator tracks a veritable ton of data every day.  That data, among many other applications, helps us to track how individual clients are doing in terms of their widget strategy and performance.  Every month several of us sit down and go through the past month's "numbers." 

Earlier in the month we reviewed our December numbers.  We put particular focus on widgets that experienced noteworthy upward movement in some of the metrics we track -- such as views, interaction, click throughs, etc.  Then we complied a list of best practices that reflect the basis for the positive changes we noticed in these particular widgets. 

Below, the list:

• put your widgets on article pages and areas to which they are related
• keep it simple; don't make widgets that try to do 'everything'
• plan ahead when launching time sensitive or seasonal widgets
• don't hide your widgets -- or content -- in your widget
• if the widget has tabs for different areas of content, consider an auto-rotate
• use animation conservatively and thumbnails liberally
• give your inheritors more than they expect
• if you have a network, use it

Last week I told you the cool news that USA.gov has adopted NewsGator technology and expertise to create RSS breaking news and information feeds on their website. The tie-up has been receiving some good publicity, and I wanted to point you to a couple of articles on this news.

ReadWriteWeb has a story called "USA.gov Embraces RSS: Launches Breaking News Service."  It's worth a read.

Also, Information Week published a story today titled, "Feds' Internet Site Goes Web 2.0."  It quotes Beverly Godwin, the director of USA.gov's Web Best Practices division as saying, "using these Web 2.0 tools is a huge opportunity for government to be transparent and save valuable tax dollars. Tools such as RSS feeds and gadgets allow the public to directly access content from the original source, no matter which Web site they're on. It reduces duplication across government because an agency creates content once and makes it available for reuse by others."

We're just excited that the "Feds," as that second article refers to them, chose NewsGator to implement the technical challenges behind their entrance to Web 2.0.  Welcome, I say. :)

I'm pretty excited about this latest development.  The news officially comes out today that USA.gov has adopted NewsGator technology to create RSS breaking news and information feeds on the USA.gov website, managed by GSA. The site has been created in order to streamline access to pertinent information so that the public no longer has to scour a bunch of government websites to find what they're looking for.  Simplicity = good.

The service that's just launched allows any visitor to the USA.gov site to subscribe to RSS feeds in the following categories:

• Agriculture
• Environment & Energy
• Family, Home & Community
• Consumer News & Recalls
• Health & Nutrition
• Defense & International
• Public Safety & Law
• Education & Employment
• Science & Technology
• General Government/Reference News

Walker Fenton, GM of NewsGator's Media & Consumer division explains how “we pioneered commercial RSS and today have the only proven scalable RSS infrastructure for delivering the steep mandate for open government access that the Federal government is committed to delivering.”  He adds, "the Federal government is awash in content and it is an exciting challenge to help streamline access to this information.  It is also an honor to be selected for helping to inform the citizenry; there are few responsibilities more important.”

We hope that this is only the first in a series of products that we might eventually support for the federal government!

Last month, I wrote a post about the future of widgets and their potential applications in the field of education.  I concluded that the future looks bright for widgets (in the educational arena).  Well, today I see that "PBS Teachers" is introducing something they're calling activity packs, which are widgets offering digital content focused around specific educational themes. Or, as they are calling them, a "growing library of Web-based widgets that contain links to high-quality PBS education resources and activities focused on a specific curricular theme for multiple grade levels."

Somehow I have a feeling that this won't be the last we hear of various educational venues increasing their usage and application of widgets.  Not by a long shot. 

You can read the full release here.

Liza Hausman has an article, "A Creative Primer on the Power of Brand Widgets," over at iMediaConnection that's worth reading -- especially if you're new-ish to the widget space.  It provides an excellent primer on the numerous benefits a well-executed widget strategy can produce.  While the piece is quite comprehensive, and focuses more on retail brands using widgets (our main customer of widgets at NewsGator is media outlets of varying types, tech companies, and government agencies), a lot of it still applies. 

Here are a couple of what I think are her more salient points -- at least in relation to what we're doing here at NewsGator:

The good thing about widgets is that, because "the current economy is now placing even more pressure on marketers to make all new investments accountable...widgets can integrate brands into the core content and activity of a users' social network, and their impact can be measured against specific goals."  This measurement piece here is an important one since, as she notes, advertisers these days are looking for increasingly "individual-specific and involvement-based metrics."  This, for instance, is why NewsGator provides advanced analytics reporting information in our comprehensive Editor's Desk widget management platform.

She also, rightly, points out the "stickiness" (my term) of widgets compared to other types of advertising: for a widget "to appear on a users' social  network profile page, that user must actively place it there" which means that "the widget becomes part of the content on users' pages, something of interest they themselves have chosen."  This provides much value back to the brand or organization whose content is in the widget.

A final point she makes ties directly into one of NewsGator's best practices.  We tell clients: keep it simple; don't try to develop a widget that does it all.  Likewise, Liza in her article, cautions that organizations launching widgets should "keep it simple, focused and relevant."  Her specific suggestion, "making one or two simple activities the focal point [in the widget]...and delivering value just a few clicks into the activity" are pointers that I completely agree with.

You can read the entire article here.

The Denver Business Journal has a nice feature on our recently launched AdBurner program that I mentioned previously on this blog. They explain how AdBurner automates advertising placement across NewsGator's entire suite of Media & Consumer products, whether it be display ads, video pre-roll and overlays, widget ads, or iPhone display ads. The article, with quotes from NewsGator's CEO, J.B. Holston, also provides good context on the reasons why we decided to launch this offering.

You can read the full article here.

Today I stumbled upon a great commentary piece, written by Donna Barrett and Randy Siegel, that appears in Editor & Publisher.  Since newspapers represent a substantial base of clients for NewsGator's Media & Consumer products, and since nearly every day recently we hear of another newspaper either on its death bed, or being shuttered all together -- along with some seemingly sounding the death knell of the entire industry -- I think what the authors have to say here is hugely relevant in the current climate.  The premise of their article is this,

"Sure, newspaper companies face serious challenges. But we also have serious opportunities to re-engineer ourselves as quality content creators for local print and online audiences that advertisers still desire."

The authors go on to say that,

"well-run newspaper companies will succeed by fighting hard, experimenting and evolving while tuning out those armchair critics who revel in the thought of a society without newspapers or news."

But what most caught my eye is one of their most important suggestions for how they believe newspapers can survive, and even thrive, in the future:

"Newspapers can increase their revenues and reach by investing in more content creation for different audiences, not less. The more compelling articles and information a newspaper and its website can offer, the longer readers and online users will be engaged. The longer consumers are engaged, the more exposure they will have to ads in print and online. The more attention the ads receive, the better the advertisers’ responses typically will be and the more those ads will be worth."

This description, almost uncannily, describes precisely what we're doing for media companies here at NewsGator!

First, by widgetizing content you are, indeed "investing in more content creation" and making this content highly portable across the entire social web.  Also, since widgets have been shown to enhance engagement rates, time on site, brand equity, etc. this fits right into the authors' point that the longer the consumers are engaged, then the more exposure they will have to ads -- which in turn helps newspapers' bottom lines.  And every single NewsGator widget is "advertisable."  In fact, we just announced our highly sophisticated Ad Burner optimization program that can seamlessly do just that.

Finally, two other product offerings from NewsGator also enhance content creation as well as reader engagement: our related content widgets, as well as our branded iPhone applications based off NewsGator's highly successful NetNewsWire application.

I encourage you to read their entire article here, but my take-away message here is that majority of the pertinent recommendations the authors make here in terms of newspapers enhancing & increasing content, enhancing readers' engagement with that content (which leads to higher ad revenue) are exactly what all of our offerings -- whether it be regular widgets, related content widgets, branded iPhone applications, our AdBurner program, or our data service offerings -- are designed to do.  There may be a down economy, and newspapers and media companies are no doubt struggling, but that just makes NewsGator products all the more important.      

NewsGator founder and CTO, Greg Reinacker, has posted his thoughts about the current state of RSS as it relates to enterprise business.  He is probably more knowledgeable about this subject than anyone out there, so his post is definitely worth reading.   His conclusion:

"RSS use in the enterprise is definitely alive and well, but it’s not in the obvious places."

You can read the entire post here.

The current difficult economic environment has not slowed NewsGator's growth; in fact, we just concluded the strongest quarter in our five year history with record revenue and a long list of new customers!  These impressive results have helped us earn a new $10 million funding round from our investors -- Masthead Venture Partners, Mobius Venture Capital, and Vista Ventures -- all of whom have previouslly invested on NewsGator. 

In 2008, a host of industry leaders have joined our growing client portfolio, which produces some very impressive statistics that I'd like to share.  NewsGator products are now used by:

• Two of the world's top three banks
• Two of the three largest banks in the US
• The world's largest private public relations firm
• The second-largest advertising agency in the US
• Two of the top three US manufacturers of network & communications equipment
• The world's second-largest law firm
• Four of the top 15 US pharmaceutical companies
• Two of the  top seven US aerospace & defense companies
• One of the top five investment banks in Canada
• The fourth largest generator of electricity in the US

In addition, NewsGator's NetNewsWire RSS reader was also named one of TIME magazine's Top 10 iPhone Apps for 2008.

Indeed, the third & fourth quarters of 2008 were the most successful in NewsGator's history, with fourth quarter revenue the highest ever.  I'll leave you with a quote from Brad Feld, a NewsGator director and the managing director of Mobius Venture Capital & Foundry Group.  "The social computing models that have rocked the consumer world have equally important roles to play in the enterprise -- and now more than ever in the current business environment.  It's inspiring to see NewsGator tapping this rich vein of need and achieveing remarkable results to document the value of its approach."

Michael Leis, over at iMediaConnection, has an interesting piece on four particular brands that he believes might benefit from creating desktop widgets to add to their marketing efforts. 

He lists Costco, CoverGirl, Starbucks, and Bang & Oulfsen as companies he thinks should go this route.  Do you agree with him?  Can you think of other companies for whom going in this direction would enhance the end user's experience? 

Or, perhaps more importantly, are desktop widgets even the right direction to be going in -- period?  Leave your thoughts!

Check out the full article here.