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Desktop and Web Widgets

By: Charlene Blohm

1/1/2009

1. How should I incorporate widgets into my sales life?

   Ever struggle to remember what time it is in Phoenix (which doesn’t “spring forward” with the rest of us)? A desktop world clock widget can tell you the current time there, or anywhere in the world. Check your spelling before you make a blog posting? Add a spell-check widget such as SpellBoy (still in beta) to your desktop. Network with your peers? Join LinkedIn and promote your involvement by posting a membership profile widget on your site. Doing business overseas, or with non-native English speakers? Then perhaps you need a translator widget on your desktop, or a widget that auto-translates your website. Or, use the Spanish Word a Day Widget to (re)learn Spanish before a business meeting. Find out about traffic before you get in the car with the Yahoo Local Traffic widget. Add a feedback widget to your blog to let your customers engage more directly with you.

2. What should I expect in the future?

   Embrace widgets to make your life more manageable and to connect in simple, easy ways to your customers. In the future, look for more ways to integrate information streams, such as sharing one profile among multiple social networking sites. We’ll likely see increasingly sophisticated communication management tools, like those from meebo that facilitate real-time conversations across multiple messaging services, mobile devices, and social networks.

Charlene Blohm is president of C. Blohm & Associates, Inc., a public relations firm serving the education industry.