Blog transferred

This morning, we published the new version of our website on www.WidgetAvenue.com. Our former LogDirect.com url is redirected to this new website.
Our ambition is to develop the most advanced universal widget application. Feel free to test the numerous futures we have already implemented on our website. You can also take a look at widget examples in the sidebar of this blog.
We like to say that using our application, widget publishing takes only 3 simple steps: shape, shake, share. We will announce shortly Sunrise, the first official release of our app. Sunrise will include a feature ("the shaker"), that will allow very easy widget creation and compatibility with more widget platforms than any other solution.
We also have a new address for our blog. Thank you.

Rebranding

Earlier this week, we published a new version of our French Website. With this new version, we are introducing our new brand name: WidgetAvenue. On our domestic market, France, we are offering a complete range of services for professional Widget Publishers and Users. These services include:
- Sourcing: finding widgetized or widgetizable contents
- Shaping: developing widgets
- Serving: providing an API for cross platform compatibility, viralization, and tracking.
Thus, our baseline in France is "Full Service Widget Agency", and we believe we are the first "Widget Agency" of this kind in Europe.
Regarding international markets, we do not plan to offer such a wide range of services at this time, because we believe the "Sourcing" and "Shaping" services require a local presence. However, we will soon be offering our WidgetServing API, which will be at the cutting edge of the burgeoning Widget marketplace. Stay tuned!

Embed your LogDirect.com Widget in your blog

One of the main components of widget virality is the possibility to embed them in whatever site or blog.

To do so, just go to the widget's page, fill-in the fields allowing to customize your widget and copy/paste the generated code into your blog editor. You can either insert the widget into a post, or add it in the side-bar.

If your blog is hosted by Blogger, it's even easier as you just click on the icon to install the widget in the side-bar.

Of course, you can create your own widget using one of our Flash2Widget or Web2Widget modules to spread your content on your blog or on one of the other platforms we support.

Widget Copyright

At LogDirect.com, Intellectual Property Rights are considered a priority. Any content available through our Widgets remains the property of the author. Reason why we're attaching to the bottom of our widgets a copyright sign, linked to the Terms and Conditions of the source contents. And though the design may not yet be definitive, that's one of the features we attach most importance to. Let Caesar keep what is Caesar's !

New Sudoku Widget

What ? Sudoku again ? Why would we do this when we have already created two ? Because this time, we applied our recently launched Web2Widget module. And see the result : this new Ajax Sudoku is much quicker than the two created with Flash2Widget.
But I must admit the Flash widgets just look nicer. So whether you fancy neat visual appeal or impressive speed, you'll rather choose one or the other of these new modules!

How To Widgetize Any Website?

The answer is: just use the Web2Widget module that we just released.
Now, the next question comes immdediately: is this really useful? Basically, standard websites are designed for at least a 800x600 pixel size, so trying to reduce their size to a standard widget size - say 300x200 pixels - is going to produce ugly results. So, this new Web2Widget module looks totally useless.
Wait. There is a growing number of websites that are designed for small size screens: the mobile websites. Why not use these websites to create widgets? This is what we've done using popular mobile websites such as Google Reader or Yahoo!Finance . The result is not as good as what you would get with purposely developed widgets: there are some issues with sizing (the widget does not resize automatically), styling (the visual aspect is usually very poor), and compatibility with certain browsers, such as Internet Explorer. But at least, this is a working solution.
We will add more features to the Web2Widget module in the near future, making it more usable. This will not suppress the need for professional widget publishers to design their widgets properly. We can provide custom help if needed.

Image2Widget 1.0

After having had some fun widgetizing favourite flash games and sharing them with the world, we've been working on our next tool. Thanks to Image2Widget, any jpg file can be turned into a widget. Though this first version of I2W is quite basic, we're planning to improve it in the coming few weeks with some more features. Meanwhile, let us share the view of our beautiful lake thanks to this Webcam Widget !

Resizing In Netvibes

Today, Netvibes changed the way they render widgets. For security reasons, they decided to embed widgets in an iframe.

As a result, our Flash2Widget tool has some resizing problem on this platform. We are doing our best to fix this problem as soon as possible.

Update : The problem is fixed with the help of the netvibes dev team. Thank you guys !

Creating A Flash Widget In Your Google Homepage

LogDirect.com announced earlier this week the launch of the Flash2Widget module.
One of the beauties of this tool is that it makes it very easy to create flash based widgets from virtually any startpage .
For example, you can use your Google startpage to create a new widget. Let's explain how.
1- You first need to add an empty Flash2Widget module to your Google page. You can do this using this link.
2- After importing the module on you page, edit the settings of the module, as illustrated below:

3- Enter the URL of the flash file, such as http://www.example.com/myFlashFile.swf, and adjust the aspect ratio (height/width ratio).
You're done! You have created a new widget that you will later be able to share with others and install on other platforms.

Launching Flash2Widget !

Install this widget on Netvibes, Google/ig, and Microsoft Live

It's official now : Logdirect.com launches its Flash2Widget ! As you guess, this easy-to-use tool allows to turn Flash applications into widgets.
We've spent some time developing it, and though some would say it's no rocket technology, we're still proud because it seems nothing like it had been built ever before.
And as you know, Adobe® Flash® Player is the world's most pervasive software platform, reaching 98% of Internet-viewers, so it looks like there are quite a few who are going to have some fun sharing all kind of Flash-things. Take your turn !

Introducing LogDirect.com Widget Syndication Service

It's been a few weeks since we have been posting on this blog. We have actually taken some time to contemplate our options, and are now ready to move forward quickly.

We believe Widget Publishers face various issues:
- there is no standard format for widgets, a growing number of platforms exist with different formats and ways of installing ("embedding") the widgets
- widgets spread/use needs to be tracked and measured, but the available web traffic management tools are not yet relevant
- IP rights need to be much better protected

Today we are introducing a unique Widget Syndication Service, intended to address these issues and help leverage the great opportunities widgets are creating. We will provide more details in the coming days. Thank you for your patience.

Also let me introduce Kirsten, our new Project Assistant, who's here to assist us on a few hot projects, and who will post on our blog to keep you updated on our latest news.

Welcome Nicolas!

Nicolas Chevolot is joining today LogDirect.com as CTO.
Nicolas was previously Senior Developer at EdenGames, an Infogrames subsidiary, where he worked on several successful video games. He was Lead Programmer on "V-Rally 3 Xbox" and "Titeuf Mega Compet PS2 and PC".
An active blogger, Nicolas has a strong interest for the Web 2.0 in general, and Widgets in particular. He will manage the development of LogDirect.com's cross platform widget architecture, and upcoming projects to be announced later.
Nicolas holds a master degree in Image rendering and analysis from Université Claude Bernard (Lyon I).

Kiva Widget Added

We have added a Kiva Widget on the sidebar of this blog. Kiva.org is the first person-to-person micro-lending Web site that enables an individual to finance a micro-entrepreneur in the developing world.
We are happy to provide a small support to a great web 2.0 idea, and hope this will be very succesful.

New WebSite

We have just published a new version of our main website.
The default language is now English, sorry for our French visitors. A French version will soon be added.
This new version now features some examples of widgets, which can be used on different platforms. We will be adding all the main widget platforms in the following weeks, and additional widgets to test. This is just a preview, and we may interrupt it later. Feel free to test and let us know what you think.

Cross Platform Widget Preview

We are currently working on a framework, which will make it very simple to develop "cross platform" widgets. Using this framework, developers will not need to make different versions for each personalized home page or widget engine available on the market. The framework will automatically adapt the code to match the specifics of each environment.
Many people still can't figure out exactly what we mean by "cross platform widget". So here is an example. The widget above provides the latest Euro foreign exchange reference rates. The reference rates are based on the regular daily concertation procedure between central banks within and outside the European System of Central Banks, which normally takes place at 2.15 p.m. ECB time (CET). A simple, yet useful widget.
You can use this widget on this page, and test the Ajax features available in this environment (for example, click on "Currency" to sort the lines by alphabetical order). Now, you may also want to import this widget on your favorite personalized home page, such as Netvibes or Google. In order to do so, you just need to click on the corresponding "chicklet", and it will be imported in a few seconds. The widget will adapt itself to the page you have chosen, with the look and features available locally.
This is just a first preview. We will add all the important platforms in the near future. Check back soon!

My.Logdirect.com Reviewed By Widgets Lab

Derek Anderson posted last Friday a short review of our My.LogDirect.com personalized homepage on Widgets Lab.
My.LogDirect.com is actually still work in progress, and does not intend to compete with services like Netvibes, but we appreciate Derek's comments.
Widgets Lab is a must read blog for everybody interested in the upcoming widget economy.

From Web Services To Widgets

Starting a new venture is not necessarily a straightforward process. This is especially true in the Web 2.0 arena, where the World changes every day.

At the beginning of this year, we started a new project of Web Services Marketplace. We intended to build the first European Marketplace of this kind, and were inspired by more advanced ventures such as Strikeiron in the US. The idea behind this project was that " Web Services and XML are quickly becoming the standard way to integrate external information with various applications". It made sense to build a platform where vendors could sell their Web Services, in other terms to create a new distribution channel for Web Services vendors.

This was version 1.0. Now, here is the version 2.0 of this project. Here are the most important updates:
- Replaced the expression "Web Services" by "Widgets": a Web Service is a technical concept, that requires extra development to be used in a given environment. A Widget is an easy to use module (see Wikipedia for more). It's essentially intended to be simple.
- Built a universal / cross platform widget architecture: thanks to this architecture, we will be able to make our widgets available on virtually any platform . We'll give more details about this architecture later.
- Developed an Ajax Personal Home Page: my.logdirect.com (still in early beta phase)

Well known Blogger Om Malik recently published a story about widgets in the Business 2.0 magazine. The title of the story: "Suddenly Everything's Coming up Widgets". We'll see.