Testing “Recommended Widgets” within the Launchpad Share Menu
At Clearspring, our mission is to connect publishers and advertisers to the rapidly growing audiences that are spending their time on social networks and other social destinations. Along those lines, we are always experimenting with new features that will help us create new distribution channels.
Recently, we’ve been testing cross-promotion capabilities that help achieve that end and hopefully create a better user experience. Specifically, we have been trying to figure out, if we know that a user likes one widget, can we show them another widget they may be interested in?
This type of recommendation service idea has been implemented in different services across the web. Our friends at WordPress.com do it with “possibly related posts.” YouTube does it with “Related Videos” on the side of the page and in the embedded player. At the end of a SlideShare presentation, you see “Related Slideshows.”
Today, we’re launching an early beta test of a recommended widget feature. Think of it as “If you like this widget, you may also enjoy this one.” This is just another way for us to help get your content into the hands of more people so that it spreads all over the Web.
Because we will be randomly selecting widgets and we have such a huge volume, the chances are that you won’t see this at all. But just in case you do, we wanted you to know what’s up.
As always, if you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns about this or anything else, don’t hesitate to e-mail me - justin@clearspring.com.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!
January 28th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
[…] for a number of years. Expect that to change in the future. Widget platform providers are externally and internally experimenting with mechanisms to monitize their previously “free” […]