This last one might only be for weather nerds like me, but I'm guessing not. Weather.com continues to add new features to this tool every month/quarter, which tells me they either like to waste money or people are downloading the app and staying engaged. Gauging by the advertisers you see within it and the constant innovation, I'm going with the latter scenario.
Again, here we have a simple tool, which by its very nature will be filled with fresh content. People like to know what the weather is going to be like for their morning commute, their weekend picnic, or their upcoming vacation to Spain. Or sometimes, especially in the middle of a cold Chicago winter, it's just fun to check the weather of all the hot spots around the world wishing you were there. I would be hooked just by that, but the fact is that the tool also serves up real-time weather alerts, local traffic reports, and allows you to customize your view to make staying in the weather loop even easier. The forecast for this widget is continued success.
SnowMate Desktop Application for your PC (v5)
Download here. 
Check out the latest snow alert technology from Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly featuring the following:
- Daily snow -- reports sent straight to your desktop
- Snow alert -- snow on your screen = new snow at our resorts.
- Trevvor (at top right) -- he'll be your animated snow guide who will ski or snowboard around your desktop and do cool tricks.
- Video and photo gallery -- featuring daily snap shots from the slopes.
- Micro bar mode -- reduce the SnowMate desktop application to a small dockable mode that displays current snow conditions.
- Live mountain cameras
- Screensaver, wallpaper and e-cards
Conclusion
As York Baur, EVP of business development for Zango, recently wrote, "Widgets are unquestionably unique and afford exiting new opportunities for advertisers. But no macro-event in business is unprecedented, and widget marketing is uncommonly similar to other marketing applications that have come before. Avoiding near-future missteps by studying the recent past is widget marketing's greatest opportunity for smooth and steady growth."
The barriers to entry in the world of widgets are going down, and while that is exciting, it's also dangerous. Email continues to get easier, but just because you can email customers everyday doesn't mean you should. Just because widgets are now easier to develop, distribute and market, it doesn't mean you should do that either.
Do your homework, research the market, and don't rush to be the next widget wizard just to say you have one. As I end, I must tell you that I'm currently going through the widget analysis process myself. Through my own research, it's become clear that there is a lot of potential gain with widgets, but as with most business decisions, there is also much to lose. Regardless of the approach you end up taking, consider this: "Courage is the discovery that you may not win and trying when you know you can lose." Good luck!