Sharing content is key if you want it to spread virally. Most sites now have a syndication feed but text links are visually boring. The new wave of slick looking timeline tools, gadgets and widgets that are springing up online let you remix and re-publish in slick interactive players. They can provide a fresh new way of seeing the web, and let your audience add your content to their own sites with simple embed codes. I particularly like timeline tools as you can see your work in context as an ongoing story.

I wrote about Real Simple Syndication (RSS) last year in Mashups Pipes & Feeds, which is driving this new way of widget based publishing. These easy creation tools are quick to set up, and customise, providing your visitors with code to paste into blogs, websites, Facebook and Myspace profiles. They let your audience help to spread your content as far as possible, using a digital version of good old word of mouth.

If you use an iGoogle homepage there are time gadgets you can add. The World Timeline is an historical timeline from the creation of universe through today, or you can add a gadget that follows your friends on twitter. Probably one of the most interesting timeline tools I have ever seen is Gap Minder as demonstrated by Hans Rosling at the TED Talks in 2007. It is now available as a free iGoogle gadget called Motion Chart for creating visual graphics from Google Spreadsheets.

Widgetbox has pre-made embeddable timeline widgets such as the Obama Timeline, a continuously updating timeline of the latest news stories about Presidential hopeful Barack Obama. You can also make your own timeline widgets and more using a simple Make Widget function which can then be published in the public gallery. A widget made of our favourite science & technology news feeds had over two thousand views on the day I created it.

Xtimeline lets you create and share timelines with pictures and videos. They also have a large database of timelines to share such as a Biography of Vincent Van Gogh and the career of Andy Warhol. You may enjoy looking through Mnemograph if history is your passion. Timerime is another timeline community for viewing, creating and comparing timelines with pictures such as Olympic Stadiums since the 1900s.

Dipity is my favourite timeline tool as it has a lovely interface which you can view as a timeline, flipbook, list or map interface. I set up a timeline for the g33k show timeline as a way of viewing all of the pods, blogs and flowgrams that we have published so far. Because it is driven by our RSS feed the timeline automatically updates whenever we publish new content. One can also have a lot of fun playing with the Dipity Mashups Timetube, where a simple keyword search will pull multimedia content into a time-line.

If all of this widget making has inspired you then head back to Widgetbox and knock up some news feeds. If you want to get a little more clever then try out the Sprout Builder studio. You can create flashy banners, countdowns, news feeds and media players in their online interface. Kick Apps is a simple yet sophisticated system, that can create widgets in a flash, and knock up your a social network within minutes. Some widgets even earn you money like the Amazon carousels of our favourite sci-fi authors that you can buy on our books page.

Now all you need is to find some time to make your own timeline and some widgets to spread. If only time itself was as easy to create!