Just when you thought no widget had been left unturned, JS-Kit released another cool one today. The Score widget is a fairly simple tool that emulates the thumbs up voting widget on Digg. However, this variant is a good deal more powerful in that it enhances the blog or site it is deployed on. In effect, Score turns any site into a sort of “localized Digg” with regard to revealing site content to users. The widget allows site administrators and users much more flexibility in both presenting and utilizing great content across any domain.

If You Digg it – Score It!
One of the big problems blogs have these days is revealing their best content on an ongoing basis. Newer posts, regardless of value or merit, always push great or desired content into the bowels of the blog. There have been many attempts, all-be-it unsuccessful ones, to alleviate this problem. Simply listing past posts or even highlighting them is not a simple enough methodology for users to be able to access the very best of any site. Score alleviates this “point of pain” by focusing desired or popular content at the forefront of articles. Score does this unobtrusively by taking advantage of the simple voting interface on every post.

Inspired by the popular simplicity of Digg’s voting apparatus, Score takes this now iconic symbol to the next level. Adding an information cue and topical selection process, Score integrates with JS-Kit Navigator to essentially “advertise” great content from withing a site. As Khris Loux – CEO of JS-Kit put it: “Score really cracks open a blog so that users and publishers can take advantage and enjoy content that has been covered up by newer articles.” Here are some highlights of the cool new Score mechanism for internal diggability.

• Score gets visitors past the home page.
• Visitors score content using thumbs up & down icons.
• The score window shows the top content, every time
• Visitors can see their favorites in the “My” tab.
• Score uses your best content to keep visitors engaged
• Educates publishers on what visitors really like.
• Works automatically to keep your site fresh
• Score is a way to find the top content on a site in seconds

If You Digg It – Score It
So Score is like a localized Digg for sites. Well, only massive users and unlimited content can make a Digg, but as for showing most popular, hottest, personal and other pertinent content – Score actually does do the trick. I have never seen this “thumbs up” symbolism take to this level myself. I think that the next generation of widgets and tools will follow this methodology and refine essentially every tool we now use.

I have said this before because adding deep function to tools like this is not exactly rocket science. If we think about Web 3.0 and rather more 3D applications of technology, then Score and other refined widgets would appear to be examples of what I might call “layered” technology. We need condensed and refined tools to carry about the Web with us. We need tools that act like “backpacks” or portable toolboxes where multiple functions can be carried out from underneath the base function. Why just Digg things we like, when we can effectively carry them with us or discover them in new and interesting ways? A good tag line here would be: “I digg Subway, but I would love to score a sandwich right now!” You can check out the Score widget here.

Complex Simplicity
I think of tools as multifunctional on the Web. Every icon or element of a page will eventually have multiple functions in my view. Look at the way browsers have progressed over the years. The endless array of customizable plug-ins and browser add-ons have now become part of our daily routines. This is a function of necessity for many platforms and for users as well. The limited space of the monitor view simply has to be taken into the realm of 3D.
This is not to say that we need a menagerie of useless clutter on our desktop, but rather that portability is not just about cell phones. What I am trying to illustrate is that soon the digital world will truly emulate the physical one in that we will be able to “backpack” into the Web wilderness with whatever we need to make the trip more enjoyable, rewarding and ultimately efficient.

Conclusion Or What Is Next?
Elements like the score widget transform simple and condensed utility into rich expandable resourcefulness. If you experiment with this widget, you will see that compartmentalized function can easily open up into vastly complex features. One little widget that can crack open a virtual storehouse of content – this is powerful stuff if taken to its natural conclusion. I expect Digg will like this enough to incorporate it if Kevin is as smart as I think he is. Bravo JS-Kit on one of the first Web 3.0 widgets. You can see the Score widget live on a cool new site too here. From its inception to this latest news, JS-Kit continues to develop an ever expanded set of tools and also stretches the way we think about viral platforms.