Tool to create your own Widget gets funded

iWidgets raises $4.1 million in Series A round

iWidgets, which make creating your own customized widget a simple task, announced they’ve raised $4.1 million in Series A funding today.  The funding was led by Opus Capital and joined by University Venture Fund.  

iWidgets, based out of San Francisco, CA offer a unique tool which can help any website bring their content to leading social networks including MySpace and Facebook, thus their tagline, "Content to the People!"  

The company’s basic motto seems to be, if you can’t drive people to check out your site due to the massive amount of content on the Web, why not bring it to where they are - social networks.  According to Geoff Katz newly hired VP of Business Development, “We’ve seen consumer traffic to destination websites flat-lining, but time spent on social networking platforms like Facebook and MySpace has continued to skyrocket…the iWidgets platform creates a new model for television shows and other kinds of media to reach an audience online and to go viral with messages and promotions by tapping into the social graph.”

The Widget has quickly become a key form of interactive advertising.  For any major event you can expect to find a Widget on MySpace or Facebook.  According to Michael Lazerow, CEO of Buddy Media which develops Widgets for big name clients like Fox and Budweiser, the little applications can drive social interaction and bring on some serious brand engagement.  

iWidgets allows any user to easily create their own custom Widget without having to go to an advertising agency.  How does iWidgets make money, by sharing advertising revenue with the creator.  

Here's a screenshot of their Widget creation tool: