For Google's search goddess (aka Marissa Mayer), Google's Gadgets provide an opportunity to build a deeper relationship with the users, get more distribution (to many more websites) and most important of all [for advertisers], a new efficient/deeper way to advertise!

"My classic example is in my iGoogle page, I have a Netflix queue [...] Normally I would go to Netflix maybe once a month. And probably I will never made Netflix.com my homepage because there's not enough happening there. But now, Netflix is part of my homepage experience every time I boot up my browser. So I see them more, I use my queue more, I make more changes to it [...] Gadgets and Facebook applications are basically like a new form of advertising", said Mayer.

And,

"It's an even a more robust form of advertising because it's not just a banner or a small piece of text. You could actually provide functionality and data that is relevant (weather information, sports scores...), responsive and interactive with the users."