Make changes suggested by @jdfreder

IPython/html/static/widgets/js/manager.js

@@ -115,8 +115,7 b' define(['
         
         var view_name = model.get('_view_name');
         var view_mod = model.get('_view_module');
-        if (view_mod !== '') {
-            console.log(view_mod);
+        if (!view_mod) {
             require([view_mod], function(module) {
                 instantiate_view(module[view_name])
             });

IPython/html/widgets/widget.py

@@ -100,7 +100,7 b' class Widget(LoggingConfigurable):'
     #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
     _model_name = Unicode('WidgetModel', help="""Name of the backbone model 
         registered in the front-end to create and sync this widget with.""")
-    _view_module = Unicode('', help="""A requirejs module in which to find _view_name.
+    _view_module = Unicode(help="""A requirejs module in which to find _view_name.
         If empty, look in the global registry.""", sync=True)
     _view_name = Unicode(None, allow_none=True, help="""Default view registered in the front-end
         to use to represent the widget.""", sync=True)