Zembly Launches Widget Platform

Frederic    blogging    

Today, widget platform Zembly (which is funded by Sun Microsystems) is launching into the already crowded market for widget creating and hosting applications.

Here is the announcement from their blog:

zembly lets you collaboratively create and host social applications of all shapes and sizes, including Facebook apps, meebo apps, OpenSocial apps, iPhone apps, Google Gadgets, embeddable widgets, and other social applications, using just your browser and your creativity.

While this does sounds easy, it’s important to note right from the start that Zembly is not a simple drag-and-drop environment. Instead, Zembly emphasizes collaborative work and the reuse of already existing code. You do need to know some JavaScript and CSS to be able to create a useful widget.

To facilitate the collaborative aspects of Zembly, they have created a basic, but functional social network on the site. Also, you activity on the site is displayed in an interactive timeline, which allows you and your team-members to track what you have been doing.

While this does make it hard for non-programmers to create new widgets and services, it does provide those with the right experience with a host of options and a degree of flexibility that the WYSIWYG widget platforms can’t offer.

Zembly is clearly entering an already busy space. If you are a programmer who is looking to create the next big Facebook app, then you could probably do a lot worse than giving Zembly a try.

If you would like to give Zembly a spin – it’s still in private beta, but they have set aside a block of 200 invites for my readers (and the invite widget functions as a demo of their service at the same time).

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