Everyone is always looking for the next “Big ” idea, but in the current 2.0 landscape, small is redefining big. After all, people don’t want a big idea; that means a lot of work. They want a big money idea, & it’s looking like “widgets” may be just that.

If you have been hiding in a cave for the past couple years, or you’ve just been busy adjusting the bunny ears on your TV, then you may need a little background info.
Widgets are simple little web applications that can be embedded into a web-page or areas of your desktop operating system. They are used to display media, interesting content, news, product information, and just about anything else. If you really want to simplify things, you could compare them to pieces of flair on your Chatchski’s uniform. In other words, anything that you, or someone else, might find interesting or funny, can be quickly and easily pinned right on your site with levels of interactivity that blow the “Honky for Jesus” pin out of the water.

Widgets have been around for years, but with the increasing popularity of web apps and API’s for sharing data, compounded with the explosion of social networking sites (millions of new micro-webmasters), many people believe we are looking at the perfect storm. At first many of the mainstream social sites like MySpace were skeptical of opening their networks to the 3rd party intruders, but they are quickly learning that they must embrace them. This past spring, Facebook shifted their business to a more open platform in-order to encourage the building and integration of these widgets within their site.

While may of these widgets started as a way of sharing information, and consolidating the number of sites a web surfer must visit to fill their daily data appetite, they are quickly evolving into serious business models. Just ask Max Levchin, one of the co-founders of PayPal, and the mastermind behind one of the webs most popular widgets “Slide.”

“Call them bling for your blog. They’re all over the Internet — some 220 million people used widgets in May alone, according to ComScore — and their viral-like success has set off a frenzy over how to make money from them.” [money.cnn.com]

As the hypes builds, popularity grows, and companies figure out how to best monetize this new front, obviously everyone is going to want their cut. In fact, it was announced just this week that MySpace is looking at jumping into the mix as-well…

“MySpace is considering lifting a ban on commerce on the popular social networking site as a way to increase its own profits, according to a published report.” [money.cnn.com]

It will definitely take some time to determine the effectiveness of a widget based business models, supported by e-commerce, display advertising, and even lead generations, but the hype is there and soon we’ll surely find out.