Last week we released our first Giveness widget for our members and Charities that leverage our service for assisting their fundraising efforts through your supporter's online purchases at Amazon and eBay.

Visit http://www.giveness.com/givecast to learn how you can get your own fundraising widget.

Widgets are small stand alone modules that facilitate a certain functionality.  Currently, the most popular widgets have come in the form of a Flash based photo slide show, mp3 player or video player.  YouTube became very successful on their ability to allow individuals to embed selected YouTube videos on their website through their Flash video player widget.  Rather than creating a blog entry that said, "Check out this great video at YouTube," the individual had the ability to stream the video directly from within the content.  There was no need to link to video, you could watch it right then and there.

Our product widgets bring you the ability to combine the recommending of products, shopping and fundraising all in one widget.  If you write a blog about TV shows, you are able to recommend products at Giveness and have those products showcased within the Giveness widget embedded on your blog.  You can also select a Giveness charity that you want to receive commissions from anyone that uses the widget to make a purchase.

But beyond the recommended products, we have incorporated the ability to shop the entire Amazon and eBay product catalogs directly within the widget.  So on top of your recommendations, or the charity that you have selected to support featured products, users of the widget can search and select from millions of available products and auctions that can easily generate fundraising dollars for a good cause.

We're looking for any feedback you might have, so please don't hesitate to leave a comment or contact us directly with any problems or ideas that you have to make this better.