As Brian mentioned in his 2007 Resolution post, widgets are going to be one of the trends to watch in 2007. Arguably, they already made big news in 2006 - but only within certain demographics (including teens, young adults, and geeks).

So, what’s a widget anyway?

On a technical level, it’s just some code you insert into your website. But from a conceptual standpoint, a widget is a little tool that packs a great punch, providing fun and useful functionality to websites. Widgets are often placed in sidebars and are very popular amongst bloggers because they allow them to create more personality on their sites. They also can often help site visitors stay better engaged.

While widgets are “fun” for their users, they offer site owners the power to essentially export both the messaging (i.e., content), as well as the branding of their website across the Internet.

Although widgets are somewhat new, the technology behind them is maturing quickly. Services like Widgetbox and ClearSpring now allow widget creators to track the usage of their widgets. KickApps, which does much more than just widgets, also allows widget owners to switch out the content of their widgets. In the case where a significant number of people have placed your widget on their sites (websites, blogs, social networking profiles, etc.), that becomes a very powerful communication tool.

Widgets won’t make or break your web strategy. They are just another tool in the toolbox. But expect to see them start being used in some innovative ways as we continue through 2007.

Manoj Jasra is a Senior Web Analytics Analyst at Enquiro. He recently wrote a post entitled “Predicting Potential Website Traffic” where he is thinking through the variables needed to accurately predict organic web site traffic (just as a reminder—organic traffic is the non-paid part of the traffic that comes to your site).

He notes that there are a handful of different elements that can come into play, including Keyword Search Volume, Search Engine Market Share, and Competitors. It’s a good list and contains many of the elements we typically use to help clients with their keyword analysis and web reporting.

While useful, accurately predicting organic traffic would be quite difficult for a number of reasons, including the fact that some of the variables (e.g., incoming links) are very complex. An incoming link from a highly-trafficked site will yield significantly more visitors than a link from an obscure blogger. But Manoj’s point is well taken—a more formulaic approach to estimating organic traffic would be of great benefit, especially when launching a new web site.

The good news is that if you have already installed web analytics on your site and have reported on that data regularly, you’ll have more than a clear picture as to what your organic traffic should look like. And with that data, you can see what causes fluctuations in it, as well as compare it to your Pay-per-Click campaigns, affiliate advertising, and other web marketing channels to see how each of them are performing against each other.

Relevant Links: Predicting Potential Website Traffic , Enquiro