WIKTIONARY’S DEFINITION OF WHAT IS A WIDGET?

1.    An unnamed, unspecified, or hypothetical manufactured good or product.
2.    (graphical user interface) A component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with.
3.    Portable code that can be easily installed and executed by an end user.
4.    A floating widget or other device inside a beer can, meant to create foam when opened
5.    A small scraping tool consisting of a blade and a handle, commonly used to remove paint from glass and other smooth surfaces.

From this baby boomer’s perspective, the above definitions meant absolutely nothing to me in that they define a widget as being not only a tangible item, but something quite intangible as well but it didn’t provide me with an acceptable answer to what is a widget? on a web page.
I was well aware of the tangible meanings but; “(graphical user interface) A component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with”
What  that was supposed to mean, I didn’t have a clue!
Sure. I’d heard and seen the term used many times while floating around the internet and on forums etc. but I just didn’t get it!

What is a Widget? Forum Responses

I’d even asked people on forums to provide me with a clearer explanation as to what is a widget? but to no avail.
I know there are times when my mind seems to set up a block to grasping a new meaning to something I already had a meaning for but for me, I associated a widget with the little floaty thingy in a can of beer and the only other thing my mind would entertain was that it was a gadget or puzzle akin to something like a Rubik’s cube.
Once again, the association was leading to tangibility.

Now most people might find it easy to grasp the concept of what a widget is with no problems but I just couldn’t grasp it. Yet, I find other concepts which some people have difficulty with very easy.
For example, I have no problem in the writing of this post.

Writing is something I find easy and comfortable with, whereas others can address the most complicated of technical issues with ease but find the idea of writing about their achievements, extremely daunting.
But I’m getting away from the issue which was defining, what is a widget?
The way I finally got around to making my mind grasp the idea of what is a widget was to imagine my blog being a tangible thing rather than a tiny piece of data, and a widget being a smaller tangible piece of the overall thing.

For Example:

My blog started as an empty box which I’m slowly filling up with other little boxes which contain other little boxes and each box has something inside it.

A widget is simply one of those little boxes.

So, when I want to put a twitter widget for example on my blog I imagine a little box in which I place the html code for the twitter widget  and put it inside a bigger box which in turn fits inside the bigger box, which is adding substance to my blog.

So now if I’m asked

what is a widget?

that’s how I explain it!
Simple huh?

Tagged with: Acceptable Answer • Avail • Baby Boomer • Beer • Blade • Clue • Definitions • Floating Widget • Forum Responses • Gadget • Graphical User Interface • Interney marketing for baby boomers • Paint • Perspective • Puzzle • Rubik Cube • Rubik S Cube • Scraping Tool • Smooth Surfaces • Web Page • What Is A Widget

Filed under: Baby Boomers and Internet Marketing • Blogging • Internet Marketing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!