I was under the impression that a "widget" was a made up product used mainly in educational arguments. An example would be if an Economics professor was giving a lecture, they would often use the imaginary "widget" as the product that a company produced for sale.
That would be my take without doing a google search on it.
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Some people are like slinkies, they aren't really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.