Under mounting public pressure, the Chinese government recently dismanted a government-supported Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that was dispensing oral health education and product endorsements.

The National Committee on Oral Health was found out to be asking companies for "donations" and "sponsorships" after it endorsed certain products. The group was collecting million in dollars each year in exchange for allowing companies to feature their seal of approval. Apparently this "certification" violated Chinese laws, but the NGO had been doing this for nearly 15 years without complaint. It's also quite common in other professional organizations in China, as it is in many other countries. Was the recent food safety scares of ingredients in toothpaste and pet food coming from China to blame for this heightened scrutiny of this NGO? Will it lead to the Chinese government auditing other NGOs?

Imagine if that happened in the U.S. Most NGOs operating in the U.S. fiercely guard their revenue streams with the cloak of confidentiality. Are there quid pro quos involved here as well? Many people wonder.

Widgets have taken the blogosphere by storm. In less than a year after appearing on the digital scene, these pervasive little buggers have found their way into every corner of the web.

ComScore estimates that about 21 percent of the blogosphere in April used widgets, roughly 178 *million* people. The marketing demo sweet spot of 18-24 yr olds were the dominant users for swapping things like photos and music content.

Now a quick show of hands… what exactly is a widget? Technically it’s a little chunk of shockwave code embedded into the HTML of a web site or page...

But don’t get bogged down, or turned off, by the techie nature of widgets.

For communicators, consider them digital silver bullets that can carry narrow-cast messages to any range of consumer. Widgets are contextually aware, which means they combine relevant content and data with the likes and dislikes of a user, little boxes of words and pictures that are just right for a certain demographic.

Widgets are a huge add-on to social networking as they help like-minded people connect to each other, and they have the potential to spur more ecommerce as simple and pervasive transaction tools.

They’re also hot across the globe – US leads user rates at 40 %, then Europe at 24%, LatAm at 18%.

Trying to get your brand associated with a hot widget site like Slide or RockYou is one thing, but I think the opportunity goes well beyond placements or the basics of ad-supported widgets. That’s barely one step up from the tedium of banner ads.

There are bigger possibilities for PR to drive brand-based messages and images that exist picture-in-picture within a widget, working the content or editorial side of the widget craze with the same principles of openness and authenticity we’ve seen exercised by the best in our industry blazing new trails in the blogosphere.

So go to a site like Photobucket, give a widget a whirl and start to think how you and your brand can be part of the next wave of widget mania.