From: Art Barstow (Nokia), Marcos Caceres (QUT) The authors (members of the W3C's Web Application Formats (WAF) Working Group) believe there is a need for standardization of widgets, which are a type of Ajax applications. The WG defines a widget as "a usually small client-side Web applications for displaying and updating remote data, packaged in a way to allow a single download and installation on a client machine" [1]. When combined with adequate Ajax development strategies, widgets have the potential to provide: * A richer and more personalized user experience than regular web documents * Lower data costs for consumers, as they are not required to continuously download web documents These two aspects of widgets make them particularly attractive on mobile devices. However, our position is these benefits can only occur through an open standardization effort of widgets that integrates with Ajax technologies. In particular, the relevant areas WAF is focusing on in regards to the standardization of widgets include: * Packaging and metadata * Automatic updates * Security * APIs and events [1]