blogbar.org has an awesome search widget that allows your visitors to search your site and Google.
If you have Google Adsense, you can plug that in to the widget and receive commissions from searches that result in Google sponsored links being clicked. Sweet!
You can also search:
–MSN
–Yahoo
–Technorati
–Digg
–del.icio.us
–Google blog search
–Reddit
–Ask Jeeves
–YouTube
–Flickr
–Wikipedia
–iceRocket
and about 12 others! Not to mention a couple of “search multiple sites at once” options. Wow!
(I would link all of these…but the search widget is right there. Try it out!)
Things to know
–This is a JavaScript (No MySpace)
–Widget has one standard width. That is approx. 150px wide.
–You have 18 color/skin options.
–Choose from 8 different languages.
–results open in new tab/window
Ripple72 mailed me asking for a widget that counted the days that you had not smoked.
I searched in vain until I found the Google gadget for this.
I should have started my search there. I’ll know for next time.
Here is the Gadget:
-tells when you quit
-how many cigarettes you have not smoked
-how much money you saved
-number of days you did not smoke
(Gadgets are script based)
Eventful.com allows you to organize events. Whether it’s a block party or a rock concert. You are in control of creating a powerful tool to promote important events.
Eventful.com gives you a completely customizable widget to help promote your events on your blog.
They also offer a service called “Demand It“. This allows you to determine the amount of interest for a specific event in a specific area. For example: Lets say you want your favorite band to play in your area. If they are using “Demand It” you can grab their widget and promote for them. The more interest generated, the more likely they will come and perform.
I’ve grabbed the Hinder “Demand It” widget to show here. I grabbed it from the Hinder MySpace page. So we know it works on MySpace.
Things to know
-Demand It widget uses Flash.
-Widget works on MySpace.
-Demanding something requires registration. This is simply to keep you informed about your demand.
-Eventful is FREE.
Gabbly.com offers a simple chat widget for your webspace.
This isn’t your typical tag board widget. Gabbly has cool features like the ability to automatically log into Gabbly on another site. You can also silence/block offensive users. You can also register to claim your “username”.
I have replaced the inCircles.com chat widget with the Gabbly chat widget. If you are interested in seeing the Gabbly widget in action, just look at the bottom of this page.
Things to know
-This widget is a simple IFrame HTML
-There are no color choices for background or borders. (bummer)
-Size options are easy to edit if you didn’t get them right during set-up. Edit the code easily to get your desired size.
-Gabbly is FREE. Registration is FREE. (Registration is only required to claim your username)
” MeeVee offers television viewers and video content enthusiasts a unique online community that provides a smarter, easier way to navigate the growing universe of television programming and video content.”
MeeVee has a cool widget that allows you to share what you watch with visitors to your webspace.
You may ask yourself “Why would I want to do that?” Well for starters…using this widget may help you entice others to join MeeVee and in turn this helps you build a community of people that like similar shows.
However, I would think that earning $10 in iTunes credit for every 5 friends you get to join, would be a better incentive. (I don’t know how long this program runs)
I went and listed some shows that I may or may not watch. Just to try out the widget.
Things to know
-MeeVee Guide Widget is MySpace friendly.
-This widget uses Flash.
-There are 18 custom skins to choose from when creating this widget.
-You also have the option to use plain color for a border.
-Color choice is completely up to you. Use the HEX color code you want.
-There are no size options and by default the widget is 340px wide. You may be able to change this in the code.
-You can pick any shows you want. Some shows even have previews associated with them.
There are over 35 Internet radio stations to choose from. Covering 10 different categories of music. This beats having to upload your music and then having to point your player to those files individually.
I’ll display the Internet radio widget in the side bar for a limited time. It only made it a few hours before I tripped. (need to dump auto-start)
Things to know
-This is a Flash based widget.
-If you want to change the size you have to edit the code a bit.
-The widget has an auto-start feature. This may be great for some. But it annoys others.
-There is a handy STOP button on the widget.
This is a huge leap in widget branding. The start of a trend that will expand considerably in 2007 and beyond. (stay tuned)
The first thing you notice about this widget is the rounded corners and the rich imagery. This is a welcome change from a visual standpoint. The next thing you notice is the large amount of available information that you can easily access. From injury reports to statistics. Even the latest team headlines are available. You also have access to video content.
Things to know
-Most of the widgets functionality doesn’t seem to work when using Firefox. (I use FF 2.0.0.1)
-Widget works fine when using Internet Explorer 7.
-There are no size customizations available.(unless you edit the code)This makes it difficult to place your widget in a sidebar.
If you do change the width, you may lose some of the visual quality of this widget.
-This widget seems to be MySpace friendly. I have placed it on my MySpace profile and it works great.
-This widget uses Flash
If you are looking to create a widget and don’t know where to begin. Here are a couple places to start. clearspring.com/developers
videocodezone.com has a video widget that works on MySpace, Friendster, Xanga and more.
They also have code that allows you to embed video in Forums.
Once you find the video you want to display, look below the video window to find the code options and select the one you need. This is very simple. There is no “hunting” for the code.
Sign up for an account to submit your favorite videos. It’s free and simple. Just an email address and a password to access your video profile.
What sets VideoCodeZone apart from the other video sites?
You can also add video search capabilities to your webspace. This is an awesome feature that allows your viewers to find the videos that they want. You can also change the search box size and color if you don’t mind editing a little HTML. The default background color was black and I changed it to blue.
Snipperoo.com has an awesome post that chronicle’s widgets in 2006.
Listed are events as they have unfolded month by month throughout 2006. I was pleasantly surprised by what he had to say about Widgets Lab. (sometime around Oct.)
“The utterly wonderful Derek Anderson launches WidgetsLab.”
I saw this first on a Zaptxt on TechCrunch at about 9pm on 12/20 exactly 30 minutes later I received another ZapTXT indicating Mashable has a post about this. These are both great resources on Web 2.0 and Tech related news.
It’s a good widget…but it could use a few options. (you can view another version at the bottom of this page)
The very first thing on the list is customization. Users need to be able to alter things like size and border/background color.
I also should be able to change the text to read “be the first to bookmark this post “. In fact I should be able to change it to anything I want.
Another option could be, allowing the user to alter the layout of the widget. This is kind of petty though, so I’ll stick to color, size and text options.
Things to know
-This is a JavaScript widget. (no MySpace or other JS restricted platforms)
-This widget allows readers to add your post/page to their del.icio.us bookmarks.
Unfortunately, the Phydeux3 widget doesn’t work on MySpace. So those users are, for now only going to be able to use the actual Picasa Web Album widget.
Need I say more?
Everybody likes to play with the magic eight ball. So I thought I would put one on Widgets Lab.
Things to know!
-Be careful when clicking on the eight ball. Most of it is a link to Pyzam.com. You need to click on the 8 to make things work.
-Supposedly you are able to see the questions asked. I haven’t yet figured out this feature as of this posting.
-Pyzam widgets are MySpace friendly!
Here is a list of Pyzam widgets and others I have written about…
-This widget is Free!
-This widget is fast!
-This widget displays a nice little thumbnail that should fit anywhere on your blog.
-When clicked, the image appears in a small secondary window similar to a pop-up.
-This widget uses JavaScript. Making it unusable on MySpace and other Script restricted sites.
Laugh.com has an audio widget that plays snippets from stand-up comedians performances.
You’ll hear George Carlin and other known and unknown comedians. There will be foul language as well. So you may want to warn visitors before they click on the play button.
Things to know
-Somethings about this widget seem different from other widgets I have used.
-I will display this widget in the sidebar for about a week to see how well it works.
-Again…there is swearing in some of this audio. So be warned!
-This should work on MySpace. If it does I will post an add to this indicating so.
The widget you see in the right hand side of this post is actually just an image linked to the widget page at Laugh.com. When I attempted to put the actual widget in this post…it about nuked my site! So I would have to say this is only “side bar friendly” at this point.
Stumble this!
