The Entertainment Software Rating Board has joined with Clearspring Technologies to launch a new ratings search widget that can be freely downloaded and used for ESRB ratings searches on web pages and blogs.
The widget is customizable by color and size, and supports English, French and Spanish languages. It is designed to be easily embedded into websites, blogs and social networking services like Facebook and MySpace, and can also be downloaded onto Windows Vista and OSX desktops, as well as Windows XP systems using Yahoo! Widgets.
“Our single most important message to consumers, particularly to parents, is that they should always check a game’s ESRB rating when considering a purchase or rental for their children,” said Patricia Vance, ESRB president. “Parents are hungry for this information, and research shows that three-quarters of parents regularly check ESRB ratings when making purchases or rental decisions about which games to bring home. Our ratings search widget makes checking the rating that much more convenient. We’re very excited to be offering this widget with the help of Clearspring.”
“Last year, the ratings search feature of our website was incredibly popular, with more than four million ratings searches having been conducted,” she continued. “There’s clearly a huge appetite among consumers for ratings information, and providing this widget will make it that much easier for them to make informed purchase or rental decisions.”
The ESRB’s new videogame rating widget provides instant desktop access to ratings for more than 14,000 videogames. For more information or to get a widget of your own, head over to ESRB.org.
