According to comScore, photo-related widgets dominate the top 10, and slide widget usages ranks number one–with a reach of 117 million people worldwide. Because of this comScore, the company that tracks internet usage world wide and “measures the digital world”, has launched comScore Widget Metrix, a service to track the usage of widgets across the Internet.
comScore tracks “Web Widgets”, the data files that are embedded into a web site’s back-end html code. Usually, Web Widgets are displayed in the sidebar on a web site and are used by the web site’s owner to “personalize” their site a bit more…by sharing customized web content to certain visitors. They’re also used to share photos or even the site owner’s music recommendations. Web Widgets are very often seen on blogs, social networking web sites, and other “personal” type sites.
comScore recently analyzed the top ten Web Widgets used worldwide and revealed that photo-related widgets are most often used.
According to comScore, the most popular widget provider was slide, with a whopping overall reach of more than 117 million unique viewers–or 13.8 percent of the total worldwide audience.
comScore also reported that the other top photo-related Web Widgets included RockYou (82 million viewers), PictureTrail (31 million viewers), and Photobucket (28 million viewers).
comScore also notes that Facebook’s recent opening of their doors to third-party Web Widget developers most likely will have “a significant impact” on the usage of Web Widgets; they also noted that Facebook’s decision to open their API will “likely have a significant impact in shaping the widget landscape over the coming months.”
Top Web Widgets Worldwide
April 2007
Source: comScore Widget Metrix
Percent of
Unique Viewers Worldwide Online
Widget (000) Audience
All Widgets 177,777 21.0%
Slide 117,072 13.8%
RockYou 82,045 9.7%
PictureTrail 30,647 3.6%
Photobucket 28,189 3.3%
BunnyHeroLabs 24,984 3.0%
BlingyBlob 21,614 2.6%
Poqbum 18,697 2.2%
Brightcove 16,866 2.0%
Layoutstar 15,348 1.8%
Musicplaylist.us 15,089 1.8%
Another interesting fact to note is that the Web Widget penetration is the highest in North America according to comScore.
As more and more web sites across employ Web widgets, the worldwide penetration will continue to grow. In April 2007, comScore reported that Web Widget penetration was the highest in North America. They say that 40.3 percent of web users visited a site that contained a Web Widget, followed by Western Europe at 24.3 percent and Latin America at 17.5 percent.
Web Widget Internet Audience Penetration by Worldwide Region
April 2007
Source: comScore Widget Metrix
Unique Viewers Widget Penetration*
Region (000) by Region
Worldwide 177,777 21.0%
North America 81,011 40.3%
Western Europe 43,792 24.3%
Asia Pacific 33,514 10.9%
Latin America 10,074 17.5%
Middle East-Africa 4,805 12.6%
Eastern Europe 4,581 7.6%
* Penetration = Number of unique widget viewers /number of total Internet users for that region
Web Widgets are defined as being “embedded flash (.swf) objects”. comScore expects to change and adapt its tracking service to include other file types as needs change.
For more information about the comScore Widget Metrix, go here.