Advertising.com has launched its new WIDGNET services programme, enabling developers of Facebook applications and similar tools to join the company’s ad network and earn advertising revenue from their creations.

Facebook applications and their equivalents on other social networking sites are often called `widgets’ or `gadgets’. These mini-applications, which users embed into their personal pages, range from interactive games to stock quote generators to photo manipulation tools. More than 9,900 are currently available to Facebook users alone, representing 453,589,160 individual installs and approximately 600,000,000 page views daily.

By incorporating banner advertisements served by Advertising.com into the application format, the WIDGNET programme “will provide developers a lucrative and easy way monetise their creations.” Advertisers, in turn, will have a continual stream of fresh, creative opportunities to target consumers in a social network environment.

Through the WIDGNET programme, creators of these applications will gain access to Advertising.com’s advertiser base. Publishers range from independent developers to established companies such as RockYou, Scrabulous and Fotoflexer whose customisable widgets include photo slideshows, photo and image editing, glitter text, voicemail accessories and games.

“Even the developers of some of the most popular applications don’t have an effective and efficient way to monetise the assets they create,” says Lynda Clarizio, President, Advertising.com. “We intend to change that by ensuring developers are compensated for their efforts and advertisers can leverage this unique channel—spurring even more innovation in this dynamic segment.”

Advertising.com intends to extend this programme to web widgets, creating alternative ad sizes and creative solutions designed to preserve a positive user experience.

“Ultimately, widgets will be yet another creative format we offer on our network,” added Clarizio. “Because of our unrivaled network reach, we can be a powerful and valuable distribution channel for widget-based branding tools we create for our advertisers.”
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