Widgets have become a common way for consumers to access snippets of personalized news, entertainment and other content online. But the fickle nature of Web users can leave individual widgets popular one day and forgotten the next.

Gigya Inc., which has raised a $9.5 million Series B financing led by Mayfield Fund, sees itself as immune to such passing fads because it is building a widget distribution network.

"If I'm in the business of distributing widgets, I don't know which is popular," said Navin Chaddha, managing director at Mayfield Fund. "I'm neutral to that...We're independent of the success of any one widget."

The funding included participation from existing investors Benchmark Capital and First Round Capital.

Gigya's widget network allows developers to spread their creations across social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, blogs and other Web sites. Gigya also has an advertising network that allows branded widgets to advertise through Gigya's network.

While Gigya may at first glance appear to be a Web 2.0 play, Chaddha, who has often invested in enterprise and infrastructure start-ups, said the company's focus on connecting publishers and advertisers makes it appealing as an infrastructure company.

Chaddha said online marketers are focusing more on widgets because they can measure the metrics of individual users' interactions with widgets through games, multimedia interaction or viral distribution to friends - something they cannot do with banner ads.

"Brand advertisers are moving more and more from measuring CPM brand impressions to measuring impact and individual engagement," said Chaddha, who is joining Gigya's board.

Gigya tracks 3 billion widget impressions per month and installs "hundreds of thousands" of widgets per day, the company said. Clients include brands such as Kimberly-Clark Corp., Viacom Inc.'s MTV, Levi Strauss & Co., Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Sprint and Toyota Motor Corp.

Gigya started out by offering a free distribution and tracking service for individual widget providers, then in January launched the advertising network, which promises the potential for big returns for the company.

"The real value proposition in widgets is the widget as ad unit," said Rooly Eliezerov, Gigya's co-founder and president. "Place an ad on a widget and you can place the ad on so many [Web sites]."

The interactive component of widgets and the ability for consumers to "endorse" them is also key, Eliezerov said.

Based in Palo Alto, Calif., Gigya last May received $3 million in a Series A round led by Benchmark Capital, with participation from First Round Capital.

Competitors in this busy space include SocialMedia Networks Inc., which raised a $3.5 million Series A round in October led by Charles River Ventures; Clearspring Technologies Inc., backed by Novak Biddle Venture Partners, ZG Ventures and AOL LLC; WidgetBox Inc., which raised an $8 million Series B last month from Northgate Capital, Sequoia Capital and Hummer Winblad Venture Partners; and Mixercast Inc., which raised $6 million in a Series B led by Intel Capital in January.