…You want a portable rich media unit that plays video and drives traffic back to your main site to sign up for newsletters or podcasts. And you want to measure total embeds, total minutes of video delivered across each distribution platform, sign-ups for the newsletters and downloads of podcasts. You’d like to look at the average abandonment point where people are dropping off so you can trim the video segments to deliver an optimized user experience.

In other words, widgets allow content creators to:

• increase online views
• market their programming, and
• gather valuable metrics about online audiences for advertisers and to improve online (and on air) offerings.

Ironically, the hosts of CNBC program Fast Money are still grappling with the definition of widget, even after the show launched its own.