Widget Mania on the Rise

Since Facebook created an open platform for software developers last May, widgets have won the love of consumers, social networking sites, and even more traditional corporate websites, Forbes reports. Facebook users alone have installed the miniscule applications—allowing them to share music or have zombie fights—more than 765 million times.

With major media companies sniffing around widget developers, observers wonder whether the sector is in a bubble. Many corporations that initially dismissed the tiny apps as frivolous toys now view them as business tools that can boost traffic and ad revenue on their sites. Amid this boom, the sector is straining at the seams, with developer shops struggling to hire enough new engineering talent. (More widget stories.)