Sent: 26 October 2007 11:11
To: Anna Carlson
Subject: Clearspring Blog Post
I Can See Clearly Now…
I was recently handed the monumental task of comparing the major players in the wonderful world of widget platforms. No mean feat, I can assure you, this turned into a mammoth undertaking of epic proportions (well, that may be stretching it a tad ;-). This is new and (relatively) unchartered territory and, although undoubtedly a new and exciting area of social media to be involved in, this meant it was tricky to nail down and collate the huge volumes of data and information into something palatable and useful that would enable us to deliver a whole host of wonderful widgets (be they destined for the web or desktop) using the right platform for the right client, and for the right price. Phew!
OK, so who are the ‘major players’ in the widget platform arena at this point in time?
With the help of Ivan Pope, of Snipperoo
Clearspring
Springwidgets
Widgetbox
I looked at a number of factors from a technical perspective, ranging from analytics, API richness, deployment options, parameter types, supported technologies (Flash, Flex, ActionScript 3, HTML), hosting capabilities, as well as ’softer’ considerations such as user experience, administrative ease, support responsiveness, and widget exposure (i.e. how many ‘hosts’ we can get our widgets onto, such as iGoogle, Pageflakes, Netvibes, Facebook etc.).
To spare you the gory details, allow me cut to the chase…
The winner is…
Clearspring! And here’s why…
Firstly, I’m really impressed with the definitions/terminology they have in place. They really seem to have thought through all this ‘widgety goodness stuff’ from a fresh perspective, and as a result, I feel they are pushing the envelope with what’s possible (for example, their concept of a widget ‘placement ID’
I like the publishing process on this platform (both from a developer’s perspective and end-user perspective), the process was really clean and fuss-free. Plus, for privately hosted widgets (i.e. where a widget resides on a private space such as iGoogle) there’s no need to revisit the platform’s website just to change a parameter value, you can do it all right there on the page where the widget resides. Bonus!
Both HTML and Flash widgets are supported (for maximum exposure, stick to Flash widgets as certain sites, notably Facebook and MySpace, don’t allow any scripting in widgets and so simply don’t permit any HTML whatsoever).
They will be exposing more features to their (already well-documented) API in the coming weeks (I’ve been added to their beta-list and await an update in this respect with bated breath!).
I was also pleasantly surprised to receive responses to my questions on support forums! And, from a bona-fide Clearspring employee, no less! This is reassuring to say the least!
Hosting isn’t provided as part of the service (which, incidentally should be provided on a Utility Computing
A tip of the hat in the direction of Widgetbox is appropriate at this point, if only for the fully-fledged Facebook apps you are able to create from your widgets in a few simple clicks using this platform, they really make this a painless process. However, at the end of the day, the sum of Clearspring’s well-thought through concepts, forum support and APIs were the clincher for me!
So, hats off to you Clearspring, for creating what looks like a very promising service, and I hope to be working with you very soon!

Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered.
Steve Winton
Developer
+44 (0)1273 648310
steve@nixonmcinnes.co.uk
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