Apple has launched three new iTunes widgets, marking the computer maker’s second move in two months into the world of social networking.

Apple in June partnered with Bebo—popular in the United Kingdom—to sell iTunes digital music tracks through the San Francisco-based social network. The new widgets let users create embeddable Flash tools they can post to a variety of social networks, blogs, and other web pages.

Gartner media analyst Mike McGuire said the widgets signify a recognition by Apple of the growing popularity of social networking across the web and of the ability of social sites to promote viral spread of media, such as music.

The widgets, which can be used on MySpace and other sites, let users list their recent purchases, display their music reviews, or show their favorite artists.

Although others have offered similar tools in the past, Mr. McGuire said Apple’s decision to create and distribute its own music widget will allow it to promote its brand and track purchase patterns as users move from social networks to the iTunes store. Moreover, he said, users have come to require these types of tools. “There’s increasingly an expectation consumers have to share taste and not necessarily share files and content,” he said.

Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence, said the music widget space is a fairly well-tested area as music recommendation tools from companies such as Seattle, Washington-based iLike have taken off.  

He added that the integration of iTunes with Bebo and now all other social networks that allow embeddable widgets, taken with Apple’s extension of its Safari browser to Windows in June, indicates that Apple appears to be opening up a bit from its previously more closed-off system.

“There’s been a way in which it’s held itself aloof from some of these trends,” he said of Apple. “This now sort of seems to reflect a movement down into more of the fray of the social media sites and the widgetization of the Internet,” he added.