Thanks for the comment, and I’m sorry about the confusion.

When I say “widget” I don’t mean a web widget, like the kind you put in a blog sidebar. I mean that as a generic term for any product (eg Acme Widget Company). It seems these days we have to watch the way we use that word.

So, you are correct in saying that we can’t be sure before more testing results are shared, we can’t be sure. But, I agree with you that creating sub-categories for brands seems to help.

Would you provide more details on what you mean by:
[Do a contest giveaway for brand x. For instance, you could give-away an “Acme Blue Widget” and make sure the blog links back to your site with that exact text.]?

Are there any widget platforms you can recommend that offer crawlable links within widgets when they get embedded on other sites?

Again, great discussion!

Thanks!

It could be a factor. If so, I would expect to see the listed brands change quite frequently, depending on what is in the news at any given time. I’m not sure that will happen.

Thanks for the comment. I’m sure they’ll continue to push it, but that’s sort of a shame. The Internet is becoming less and less of a level playing field. Oh well… it was bound to happen sooner or later.