Sue Waters Blog

Tag Archives: Widgets

March 18, 2008
by Sue Waters
15 Comments

I’ve Gone Widget Crazy And Need Help To Control Widget Addiction

Edublogs have given all it’s users new freedom and allows javascript, iframes and object code to be embedded directly into Edublogs blogs. Which is great because I can just copy and paste pretty much most ‘embedding’ code picked up around the web directly into my posts or a text widget in my side bar.

Most importantly I no longer suffer from blogger envy caused by friends having cool toys on their blogs which I haven’t been able to embed. Trouble is I may have become “widget crazy” and need “widget addiction therapy”. Worst still I may have totally cluttered my blog sidebar, which is detracting to readers, so I’m hoping if I list the changes I’ve made my readers may give feedback as to their thoughts i.e. good widget, bad widget or no opinion yet on widget.Image of Lijit Search

Lijit Search

I’ve been jealous of Martin Weller having Lijit search on his blog for a long time. The reason I like the idea of Lijit is because I have my content located across lots of websites and this search allows readers to search content on my blog or all my sites (by clicking on the My Content Tab). Plus it provides some really cools statistics on how readers interact with my blog that are emailed weekly or I can check them out online in my account.

Unfortunately when readers click on My Content tab the search will also shows results from other websites – which is really bad. You want readers to stay on your sites not go to other peoples sites.

The Lijit search widget can be customised to your preferences. I’ve set mine up so that it displays where all my content is located whereas Martin Weller doesn’t display his content. To be honest displaying my content like this may be increasing sidebar clutter and I may have been better using another widget or my blog roll to link to my other websites.

I also still have my Edublogs search widget in my sidebar while I testing Lijit search.

CoComment

Okay I can compromise (although maybe my hubby wouldn’t agree :) ).  I still prefer subscribing to comments on other bloggers posts using co.mment because its RSS feed into Google Reader is better.  However I’m intrigued by the community aspect of cocomment which isn’t an option with co.mment.  So I’ve installed my cocomment widget to this blog; not sure if anyone really wants to read my comments on other blogger’s posts in my sidebar? Let’s be honest it is creating clutter.

Still need a guide to getting more out of using CoComment if anyone has seen one.

Blogroll Created Using Google Reader Shared Folders

John Larkin taught me this trick; it’s a really quick and easy way to create your blogrolls using Google Reader.

Benefit of this method is your blogs subscriptions are automatically updated whenever you add or delete a blog subscription without you having to adjust your blogroll within your blog dashboard.  Apologies to some bloggers –I’ve used two folders to create the blogrolls — Edubloggers and Non-Profit.  Some bloggers in the Non-Profit don’t exactly fit that category.

Other Widgets

I’ve also add a Shared Google Reader widget; it’s right at the bottom hidden away — not fussed if it stays or goes.  Plus haven’t been able to part with MyBlogLog widget; I like the pretty pictures :) even if I’ve not got into using MyBlogLog effectively.

I like the FeedJit widget on Frank’s blog that shows where readers are visiting from but think adding it will just make the sidebar clutter even worse.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So besides “widget addiction therapy” what are your thoughts on the new widgets i.e. good widget, bad widget or no opinion yet on widget.  Is there an important widget I’ve missed that needs to be in my blog sidebar?

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April 24, 2007
by Sue Waters
3 Comments

You say widgets, I say gadgets….we might as well call the whole thing off!

The pressure is on – two on my friends – Evil Sue and Frances – have both got into blogging at the same time…which I am really pleased about…:( but it’s like double trouble.

As Evil Sue post grab my attention first lets start with her. She ended her first post with “Good Sue said to use the easier blogger. But buggar that, what she can do, I can do better! Muwhahahahahah – bring it on!” Honestly at this point, I had thought she had finally lost it because “Girlfriend you are not even in the competition!“:) (If you have been following Sue and my exploits on my podcast site you will be aware that we are a bit competitive! – in a nice way).

So Evil Sue, over the past few days, has been struggling to learning how to use her edublog blog (I did warn her!) and is feeling very old at 34 as she realised the world has changed while her head was buried in work! However she has risen to the challenge and posted an excellent read on “Widgets, Widgets, Widgets” which made me investigate widgets more.

Poor Evil Sue, like most of us, is struggling to keep up-to-date with all this web terminology and widgets is a classic example. In simple terms widgets are mini web applications that you can put onto your website (i.e. blog, wiki, homepage). For example, the feed from my del.icio.us account in my sidebar is a widget. The following pictures are examples of widgets you can get for your site from Widgetbox (unfortunately I am unable to install any at the moment as most run on javascript and it has been disabled on WordPress blogs at the moment due to security issues – however these widgets will embed okay within wikis).

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What makes matters confusing is that there are alternative names for Widgets (Other terms used to describe a Web Widget include Gadget, Badge, Module, Capsule, Snippet, Mini and Flake). Google is a classic example of this, they call their widgets gadgets, when you add stuff to your personalized Google homepage Google says you are adding gadgets. While as an end user, a names does not mean much to us (we just want to put cool things on our site that will interest people that visit our site), for a developer gadgets and widgets imply two different types of applications.

If you want to enhance your website then I suggest you check out the great selection of widgets at Widgetbox, with so many to choose from there is no way you will not fail to bling up your site. Interesting post on the Widgetbox Blog about what make a widget popular – social (built around what you want to share with your friends); personalized (it is your baby’s due date, your website or your blog, your videos, your playlist); simple and catchy.

From my point of view, the only problem with widgets, is I can not always embed the one I want in an edublog blog. Check out my cool animated glitter art on my wiki. So I have had to go with glitter words here instead!

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While Evil Sue has an issue with the idea of a “widget week” because she is feeling overwhelm by all this technology. I think what a cool idea! I think it is time we all started blinging up our sites with cool widgets! Frances I will talk about in my next post (sorry Frances but this post is already too long!)