I read on CNN yesterday about Yahoo and Google planning to offer social networking applications through their email page functions. Both companies have already made significant strides in allowing users to customize their home pages and aggregate content and functionality from various sites into a personal portal page.  However, I think that email is at odds with social networking given that email is inherently a personal communication.  Sure, I can block content from being seen by the world on social networking sites, but content is largely available to people I’ve marked as friends. Email is often more transactional then social, and that is a significant difference. I get the point about my email contacts being the genesis of my social graph, but no offense, there are some folks in my contacts database that I prefer to communicate with only on an as necessary and transactional basis.  Now, having widgets that tie my social networking information into my Google home page would be something I’d really go for. I’m all for the idea of a centralized home page that is aggregated, and eventually curated, just for and by me.  But leave my email account alone.

The Wall St. Journal has a good article today about widgets (thanks Katja for the tip) - check out this summary (registration required for full article). The article talks about measurement of widgets and other online tools, and some of the difficulties monetizing this business. Given what an important topic measurement is, anything we can do to help our clients understand the reach and impact of online tools is a good thing. What remains to be seen is the impact of advertising on widgets and other online tools, and how consumers react to receiving ad messages in this format.

As part of our digital outreach initiative, Burson-Marsteller released a widget this week. The Burson-Marsteller Desktop Reporter v1.0 provides top news stories, blog updates and stock quotes via a widget on your desktop. Download the widget now, and let us know what you think. And, stay tuned for version 2.0 in a few months that will include customization features.