Our friends at Collecta, a fantastic real-time search application, have just launched a new feature for all site owners: free, customizable, embeddable widgets.
Widgets can be created around any search term imaginable and customized in a number of ways. Results are automatically refreshed, just as they are on the Collecta site, and include results from blogs, microblogs, news feeds and photo sharing services.
The ability to enrich a website or blog with streaming, real-time content is something that’s been offered from a smattering of other companies. For example, Facebook offers a Live Stream Box that allows site owners to stream relevant Facebook status updates alongside their own content.
Still, Facebook statuses encompass only a limited amount and type of information available on the real-time web. Collecta, on the other hand, boasts more than 10 million unique content sources, including Twitter, WordPress, Flickr, The Associated Press, CNN, and Reuters.
Customization options include the ability to choose one’s search terms as well as the ability to customize the header, control the scroll rate and link to an external style sheet to integrate the widget with a website’s existing look and feel.
You can see the widget in action as it powers the streaming results for MySpace’s breaking news page that’s focused on Haiti – or just check out the Real-Time Tech widget we’ve embedded below.
For more on Collecta and the evolving market, check out the ReadWriteWeb Collecta and Real-Time Search archives.
