March 30th, 2007
yourminis opens up the widget platform, releases API
Tonight yourminis announced the availability of their API, giving developers a way to build widgets and upload them. In addition, the team released an analytics application that will help you track where your widget is going and how many people are using it. All of this is under a developers section on the yourminis page which includes information on how to get started and the files you'll need to download.
This move is obviously a great one by yourminis as they continue to build out the widget platform and expand beyond what others can do. Flash developers should be able to create widgets without much difficulty. I played with the API a bit before it was released and found it easy to use and fairly quick to turn around a widget. The tutorials on the site were a big help, but Flash developers should get the hang of it with no problems. A couple of minis that were released with with the API include a Twitter widget and a Skype widget, showing just how powerful the API and the platform are.
From a widget developer standpoint, I think yourminis stands out from the others, and that's partly due to their use of Flash (and a good team). The ability to provide access to your widget from their page, a Firefox extension, a blog, or the desktop using Apollo, is invaluable for getting your brand or content to your users. There may even be some overlap for people who want to monetize widgets directly with a service like Wallop. Widgets continue to grow and become more important, and this is just another innovative step by yourminis. Developers should be happy.
Ryan Stewart, a Rich Internet Application developer and industry analyst, recently joined Adobe's Platform Team as a Rich Internet Application Evangelist. full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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