Today the New York Times launched widgets (beta). Users can now create customized widgets to embed on their own Web sites, blogs, customizable homepages and social networking pages. Times Widgets can be created from section-specific RSS feeds such as Business, Health and Sports, and from Times Topic pages RSS feeds, such as Barack Obama, India and the Treasury Department.

“Times Widgets is an important tool in our strategy to open up the site and further integrate our content onto some of the most popular and powerful sites on the Web,” said Marc Frons, chief technology officer, digital operations, The New York Times Company. “This launch builds on last week’s debut of Times Extra as it is another way we are providing our readers with comprehensive access to trusted news and information no matter where they are on the Web.”

To create Times Widgets, go to http://www.nytimes.com/timeswidgets.

I tested out the widget creator and it is very easy to use. I think widgets like this are much better on sites like iGoogle or Netvibes, than on peoples blogs or websites. But never the less, here is what I created.

The widgets will be constantly updated and they adjust to fit the width of the blog (which I think is a very nice feature) Over all I don’t know if this is a “game changing” feature for the NYT, but I think it puts them a a good position for learning how this media is changing.