AOL has just announced the acquisition of Goowy Media, a San Diego-based Flash startpage, widget and desktop application startup. One of Goowy's bi-products is yourminis a slick startpage that I previously reviewed and named one of the best beta products of 2006. It is pretty rad.
Goowy's widgets can be distributed to just about any page or social network on the Web (as shown below) which is comparable to offerings by ClearSpring, Widgetbox and Gigya, which have also been getting buzz in the widget advertising space. These distribution capabilities will come in handy on myAOL as well as helping to syndicate AOL network content. Goowy also offers widget metrics in a dashboard that closely resembles the feed metrics dashboard of FeedBurner which was acquired by Google for $150 million.
This acquisition hits close to home in my role on the social platforms team at AOL. As myAOL product lead, I actually fielded one of Goowy's initial introductions to AOL early last year in Mountain View. They then worked with my team on a number of widgets for myAOL. Not to mention I got to celebrate my birthday with them in Santa Monica at Twiistup 1, as well as spend time with the team at a number of conference throughout 2007. Goowy will be added to the social platforms group which also recently acquired Yedda. Congratulations to Alex Bard, Gary Benitt, Jeremy Suriel, Sashi Bommakanty and the rest of the Goowy Media team - so glad to have you on board.
For more on this news check out what AOL SVP of Social Platforms, David Liu had to say on video about the aquistion of goowy. Alex Bard has posted about the deal the yourminis blog. Finally, check out TechCrunch for additional perspective on AOL's acquisition of Goowy.
