WebProNews

ShareThis, creator of the ShareThis widget that allows for the easy sharing of content via your favorite social networks, has announced a new version of the widget with some added features. I just chatted with CEO Tim Schigel about it.

The new widget is currently available in limited Beta, but will be rolled out to general availability in the coming weeks. Once that happens, expect a lot more sharing to happen on the web."We see that sharing frequency increases >5x when users leverage tools like ShareThis with access to their contacts and friends," Tim tells me [emphasis added].

"Sharing is good!" he exclaims. "I think the growth of services like ShareThis demonstrates the importance for publishers, and people will be sharing more and more."

ShareThis is featured on over 80,000 publisher sites including ESPN, MTV, NFL, Wired, TechCrunch, Mashable, and many more. The new widget can be seen in action right now on the beta sites including:  AccessHollywood.com, Boston.com, Dogtime.com, Elle.com, and FoxNews.com. Check out this video to get a feel for what's new:

New features in the beta version of the widget include:

- ShareBox v.2.0 - Users can now save content directly to their ShareBox through a link in the widget, allowing for easy access to previously shared content.

- Contact Manager - Users can now import access contact names and email addresses directly to the widget from the largest webmail providers through ShareThis’ new contact manager, allowing for easier sharing to all contacts without ever leaving the website they are visiting.

- Smarter Widget - The widget will automatically display the last three email addresses used, providing an even faster and easier way to share content with the relevant contacts.

- Improved Design - ShareThis completely redesigned the widget to be tab-free. The once separate Social Web and Post tabs are now merged together.

Tim says the release represents a lot more to come, and that it is a platform on which they will continue to expand. For example, preparing for further integration with other social web services, and leveraging APIs to do more with less effort.

For new users looking to use ShareThis, setting it up on your site is easy and could take minutes, depending on your site and CMS. Plug-ins are available for WordPress, Blogger and TypePad. ShareThis originally launched the button for publishers in November 2007. They have yet to realize a monetization model, but Tim says they have some ideas.