PagePow Inc., a new web technology startup based in Minneapolis, today announced the launch of a private beta at PagePow.com. PagePow enables bloggers and web content owners to easily copy and paste web-based widgets into their blogs, web sites, auctions, social networking sites, and more. PagePow.com is immediately avalable as a private beta.
The startup is debuting with seven widgets:
– 5-Star Rating
– Poll
– Quiz
– Page Counter
– Google Map
– Contact Us
– Send Page to Friend
More widgets are planned. A key differentiator with PagePow is that bloggers and content owners will also have access to comprehensive reports generated by all the widgets they use. PagePow members will easily be able to monitor all the data their widgets produce through one simple interface at PagePow.com.
“Web site ease-of-use is a major focus for us, ” said PagePow founder Joe Sriver, an experienced UI designer whio worked in Silicon Valley for several years. “We spent a lot of time creating a simple, intuitive user interface to make sure people can come to the site, easily find what they need, and copy the code to their site within a couple minutes.”
PagePow allows webmasters and bloggers to concentrate on generating content without having to worry about programming to have the cool features they want on their web sites, said Sriver.
PagePow offers comprehensive reports detailing statistics from PagePow widgets. “We wanted to offer widgets that any site could potentially use. We won’t have widgets that have a very narrow user base. For example, our poll widget can be used for any question,” said Sriver.
Users of PagePow widgets will be able to track all the data they generate while using the widgets, by logging in to PagePow and seeing their ratings, comments, poll/quiz answers, etc. all in one place. “This is something I haven’t seen on similar widget sites,” said Sriver. 
“We let everyone take advantage of our widgets — not just webmasters or bloggers who put the code on their pages, but any user of the widgets.” Users will receive a one-time only pop-up dialog when they confirm their vote, comment, etc., and PagePow will prompt them to log in and will briefly explain the benefits of tracking their data.
Those interested in participating in the PagePow private beta can submit their name and email address at PagePow.com. Private beta testers are invited to comment on the functionality and UI and anything else they wish, said Sriver. A stage-one Public Beta is planned for the near future.
It didn’t take the 800-pound gorilla long to figure out that advertisers were coveting all the space that content publishers have been devoting to widgets. Many of these advertisers would naturally like to push their wares inside little embedded, interactive pieces of web real estate, too. It’s not just about getting a click-through; these things offer great branding possibilities as well.
The CEOs of two widget syndication networks, 
Watch for another link to Read/Write Web soon, a recap of the whole Web 2.0 Expo experience. And I hope to be writing for this great blog again in the future. It was also fun hanging out again with Alex Iskold, a regular writer at Read/Write Web, who’s also founder of 
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