They recently introduced gadgets (or widgets) like YouTube movies, slideshows and newsfeeds. A lot of these gadgets fit in the idea that you can make your profile more personal, and show others who you are, what you like and in what kind of things you are interested in. There’s no problem with that.

The problem I see is that all these gadgets have their own interface and are all working in different ways. You can play YouTube movies in the embedded player, but if you want to see an other slide in the slideshow from Slide.com, you have to open the slideshow in a new window. Although it’s possible that visitors have seen these gadgets somewhere else and know how they function, a lot of these gadgets are causing an longer (and steeper?) learning curve for (new) users then necessary. Some simple reasons for this are the inconsistency in gadget interfaces, inconsistency with the overall interface of the website itself and the broad range of gadget types.

I wonder how much people are using the gadgets to show who they are, what they like, etc, and how much people are using the gadgets because they are available and it looks “cool” to have some extra’s stuffed in your personal profile… I think a lot of them are also threatening the social aspect of these kind of websites. YouTube movies, slideshows, newsfeeds and all those extra gadgets ,implemented very easily these days by using API’s, can all be used to support the social aspect, but also as entertainment which distracts visitors and users and takes them further away from the website’s main goal: getting social and making new friends.

I wonder about Facebook, where it’s given users the option to add their own “features” … will all of the Facebook apps turn it into a prettified MySpace? I’ve already seen my own interactions with other Facebook users’ profiles bogged down when their pages are packed with mini apps.