Myth #1: Widgets are trinkets
Many consumers still see widgets as tools for "buying each other drinks and throwing sheep at each other," according to Eric Alterman, founder and CEO of KickApps, a white label producer and tracker of widgets and other social media tools. Users also often view widgets as simply accessories for a site -- to make it pretty or add features with limited functionality but lots of visual appeal.

Alterman admits that early on in widget development those were some of the main ways consumers used the tools, but he says widgets have evolved exponentially since their Jurassic days.

In fact, U.S. companies will spend $40 million in 2008 -- up from $15 million in 2007 -- to create, promote and distribute widgets, according to eMarketer.

Which leads us to our second myth…

Myth #2: Widgets aren't important
Originally, widgets may not have been important, but (perhaps unsurprisingly) Alterman sees widgets as the future of the web. Many of today's most popular websites, such as ESPN.com, were initially hand-coded, built one page at a time. Content management systems soon replaced such arduous coding of websites, but many industry experts predict widgets, which can easily be plugged into any site, will soon be the new model for the construction of whole websites. Soon, Alterman says, many major websites will be composed almost entirely of widgets.

That's because not only can site developers use widgets to easily swap content in and out of a page, but users can do the same, tailoring major media sites to their personal preferences. In the process of constructing their dream pages, consumers provide publishers with key information about their media and information consumption preferences.

"Widgets will be the basic building blocks for pages that make up every network site," Alterman says. "We're already seeing widgets appearing on sites like CNN.com, but soon it's going to be the lion's share that's going to be like that."

Myth #3: Widgets are only about social networking
To date, the majority of widget-based activity has centered on sites such as MySpace and Facebook, as well as around personal blogs. Alterman attributes this trend to the fact that the main focus of these sites is on personalization.

However, as more traditional media companies and web portals become more comfortable with user-generated and user-mediated content, the industry is likely to see the widget world expand far beyond the realm of social networking.