Learning Center How to's

What Is a Widget

Learn about widgets and how you can use them to add functions to your website.

What Is a Widget? Some applications and websites offer their users an extension of the program or service which can be downloaded straight to the user's computer and stored on its desktop. These extensions come in the form of a small, limited user interface known as a widget.

Both the providers and the users of an application or a site usually find widgets to be convenient and even essential tools. Widgets can even be adapted for use on mobile devices such as smartphones. Some are specifically developed for the mobile market, while others serve as a site extension for websites that cannot be accessed by mobile users.

Table of Contents:

- The purpose of a widget
- Benefits of widgets for businesses
- Implementing widgets into a business website

The purpose of a widget

The purpose of a widget is often simple yet essential. A widget serves as an extra incentive for a business or brand to attract loyal customers. Though they are implemented to perform a specific function, widgets can also serve as an additional advertising tool for the business and products they represent. Most widgets appear in the form of a pop-up window or dialogue box, and they serve as reminders, countdown timers and notification tools for those who use them. They tend to remain on a user's desktop or notification center in the form of an unintrusive icon, thus their extreme convenience.

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Benefits of widgets for businesses

At first glance, implementing a widget into a business's website can seem like a hassle. However, when the benefits are weighed against the potential setbacks, the business clearly stands to gain more than it would lose by featuring a widget for those who visit its site. A widget serves as a constant reminder of the business and the services it offers. More importantly, it manages to do so while still being independently useful to its user. Potential customers also tend to praise a business for the virtual convenience it offers them. The more partial a user becomes to a widget, the more he is likely to become and remain a loyal customer.

Implementing widgets into a business website

Normally, building a widget into a unique user interface is known to be a challenge to those who are not software savvy. However, if a business uses a website builder like www.site123.com to create and maintain its site from the start, implementing a widget into the interface is no hassle. All the website creator needs to do is upload the relevant information into its corresponding fields on the website builder's panel. Website builders take care of the rest, creating a user-friendly widget on your terms.