Biz Dev in NYC by Rob Tsai

Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion and Pete Cashmore at Mashable have covered the news that Google is now embedding its widgets (Google Gadgets) within search results (if the searcher has opted to subscribe to those widgets).

Writes Steve:

Right now there are only a handful of gadgets you can sign up for. All of them are from Google, but they are handy. They include: time/date, translations, traffic and weather radar/conditions. If you have a Google account and you opt into these links, when you search it will trigger the data to load above the search results. You need to enter certain keyword commands, such as: “what time is it” or “weather 10036″ or “new york traffic” or “translate hello into spanish.”

I’m wondering if and when it would make sense for these gadgets to become a default option for display in search results.  Obviously, forcing people to opt in to a subscribed links program limits adoption, at the beginning, to the tech-savvy early adopter crowd. 

Who wants to take the time to browse a library of gadgets to select the ones they want to subscribe to anyways?   Would Google , with all its prowess around algorithms, be able to “understand” which of its searchers are likely to prefer and enjoy gadgets in search results and to proactively serve these Google gadgets as default search results without requiring a person to opt in?    And, as Google starts to serve up these gadgets in the search results, I’m sure they’re capturing and mining the data on which users are clicking through and engaging with the widgets, which ones aren’t, and which gadgets are more popular.

Obviously - as the widget ecosystem becomes extraordinarily large - the semantic challenges arise, and I can understand how an opt-in program for gadgets can help this problem.  For example, if I type in Albert Pujols in my search engine query, should the search engine display a calendar widget with the schedule of St. Louis Cardinals’  home games, or a fantasy baseball widget with his stats and how they impact my fantasy league?