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Feb 28
2007

Brady Forrest

Brady Forrest

Google's Gadget Numbers Revealed

google_logo_sm.gifWidget developers take note. If you weren't certain the development time for a widget would be worthwhile or not the numbers are in. Google has released the daily rendering numbers of Google gadgets. To see the numbers for an individual gadget go to the Gadgets For Your Webpage directory. So far, there are no aggregated lists showing the popularity ranks of various widgets. I suspect that Google will add them in time; I also suspect that someone else will write a script to scrape  the pageviews and make their own Google Gadgets popularity ranking site (when you do, put the URL in the comments).

It's interesting to see what scale these pageviews operate at. Here's a survey of the views for gadgets:

Games, reference, and location are big, but there is definitely a long tail out there. The numbers aren't exact. Here's the disclaimer:
These numbers are approximations, representing the number of times each gadget is rendered across all places Google Gadgets can be viewed [Brady Note:List from Google - "Google Personalized Homepage, Google Pages, Blogger, Google Desktop, and across thousands of independent pages around the web"]. The pageview count is aggregated weekly to smooth out the normal daily fluctuations and we have filtered out automatic page refreshes. Individual gadget authors who want to know more specific information about their gadget's traffic should make use of the Google Analytics library.
So why is this interesting? If you are a gadget owner this is a good way to get competitive intelligence, not a good way to track your pageviews (though I guess it could also be a lazy person's analytics package). For potential gadget creators this is a good way to validate how popular your widget might be. Assuming that you are able to promote it; the gadgets your comparing will have first-mover advantage. Me, I just like it when Google reveals even a fraction of what they know.

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Search Engines WEB   [03.02.07 05:20 AM]

...., not a good way to track your pageviews (though I guess it could also be a lazy person's analytics package).
Google also has a Counter Gadget Available. Suprised that the YouTube player was not more popular than it is

Widget Squad   [03.04.07 12:38 AM]

Interesting number. I am curious to see more statistics and data from this industry.

Would ike to see widget views for all platforms.

Niall Kennedy   [03.06.07 09:20 PM]

I crawled the entire Google Gadgets directory and posted a few stats about the Google Gadgets ecosystem on my blog. Let me know what else you'd like to see!

mosh   [07.19.07 11:25 PM]

I like Google Gadgets
and use much of them

tvman   [11.21.07 04:40 AM]

The Google Gadgets are great, if they are spy nobody will use them ...

Mini Apps Team   [01.12.08 01:22 PM]

Soon after launching the Google Mini Apps Directory it became clear that entertainment stuff such as games where the most popular gadgets. The last month or so, however, it seems google gadgets that can be used for productivity, e.g. web tools gadgets, finance tools gadgets(and to some extent shopping tools gadgets), becomes more and more popular.
Maybe gadget users start to realize the usefulness of Google gadgets?

Mini Apps Team   [01.12.08 01:24 PM]

Soon after launching the Google Mini Apps Directory it became clear that entertainment stuff such as games where the most popular gadgets. The last month or so, however, it seems google gadgets that can be used for productivity, e.g. web tools gadgets, finance tools gadgets(and to some extent shopping tools gadgets), becomes more and more popular.
Maybe gadget users start to realize the usefulness of Google gadgets?

Radyo Dinle   [01.15.08 04:03 AM]

The Google Gadgets are great, if they are spy nobody will use them ...


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