Feevy offering is not something new, we have seen quite a lot of the idea, but as the web 2.0 has made us learn, is all about execution and the design sporting that execution, and that is what makes Feevy a good thing in the very saturated niche of Feed related widgets.
Feevy main idea is that regular Blogrolls are boring and don`t have as good results as they could have if they were well designed, so they have created a Sidebar Script based widget where you can sport your preferred blogs in a sequence of pleasant to look badges, you can add up to 9 slots in your sidebar widget, and they will be changing as any of the blogs in the sidebar updates, it allows you to have an icon, excerpt and a link to the post and the blog in the badge, you can customize in two colors or a liquid css version that will mirror the look of your blog and you can also syndicate your feevy blogroll for anyone to see in Feevy Site.
The widget is of course intended as a blog only widget, and it offers more options and convenience for Wordpress users by having a proper plugin and that it was designed thinking in that platform first or so it seems.
Feevy is a project from Las indias Electronicas, a Spanish org/company and they also offer the code for feevy to anyone that wants to create their feevy service on their own
I see feevy as something more valuable to either small Blogs, Team blogs or Small Blog networks than anything else, the execution is still good and it deserves a try.
you can check how a full fledged Feevy sidebar looks in their Blog
RSSmixer combines all your feeds into one. Then you can view them on the RSSmixer site. You can also create a widget for your blog , Apple Dashboard or the iPhone. The web widget allows you to share what you read via RSS with all of the visitors to your blog. They can copy your feeds for their own if they desire.
I have too many feeds
If you are like me, you have more feeds than you can keep up with. (or barely keeping up) Putting all of these feeds into a widget seems almost comical. There is no way every post from all of your feeds can be displayed. So what happens is you get a few of the most recent and they are linked to the RSSmixer site, where all the rest of your feeds have been remixed.
What makes it tick?
The web widget uses iFrame HTML for the programming. There are no multiple choice options for customizing this widget. What you see is what you get. If you don’t mind editing the code you can change many aspects of this widget. Most of the CSS is there to be tweaked to your liking.
E-commerce, and in specific, E-store widgets have been one of the commercial high hopes for many,from vendors who want a easy way to sell their stuff, to publishers who want easier options to gain some extra cash from commissions and even to users, who want hassle free ways to buy while they do their regular blog or social network surfing, because unless you haven`t noticed, it is quite the rage since last year.
And here 3 options for such easier ways of selling something in a widget:
Blinkcart
Blinkcart is a fairly new service that truly relies in the widget they are offering as their main focus, the widget can be posted to either social networks like myspace or blogging platforms, the blinkcart widget is really more of a gateway widget in the form of a “add to cart” button, like the ones used by paypal in the merchant options, what is the main difference then?. well, it is easier to set and you can pretty much place it anywhere as the examples in the blinkcart page shows. i named it a gateway solution because the e-store service is not yet entirely complete. you can easily build your store with it, place the button along the pic of the product you are looking to sell, then the customer can click the “add to cart” and a lightbox will appear without leaving the page to add the product, with the option to continue shopping, that will close the lightbox so the customer can continue shopping, but once the checkout process is done, a new tab or window will open taking it away from your page into a landing page to end the buy, that page offers logo customization. however i don`t agree with it, simply because, how hard it was to do it inside the lightbox in the first place?.
Another reason for me to be nitpicky even if the service seems to work flawlessly, is because it goes from 12$ to 59$ a month, with no free option at all. since i do know paypal merchant services very well, i can`t really figure out besides some minor conveniences how is this better than paypal?, paypal will charge you by transaction, but you only pay if you sell. in blinkcart case, you still need to pay 12-59 dlls a month, no matter what, without knowing what other terms could apply next.
Blinkcart allows you to sell your stuff, and get commission to sell products you choose too.
So, in resume, blinkcart needs to be even more convenient, more transparent and offer more widget options to really have something going on.
they do have proper demos, you can check the one for blogger here
Rightcart was pretty much the first venture to go for the e-store widget all the way, the promise is simple,they give you “add to cart” buttons for you to put in your blog or website and they also provide a end to it all same page e-commerce transaction without your visitors having to leave your page during the whole process, and it does deliver such a promise, pretty much the only inconsistencies exist in the service itself, not the widget that is pretty much fantastic. the widget is given in the sole form of a full sidebar widget, something that eliminates any chance from getting any action in most social networks.
It allows you to sell your stuff, and to sell others by commission, the only problem it has is that sometimes it fails to do the transaction, sometimes the buttons are quite slow to respond and it charges a commission that can be actually more expensive that using paypal Merchant solution.
But they only charge you by transaction, there is no monthly fee and as i said, it is a integrated solution.
So, the only thing rightcart needs to get better is improve the reliability, more size/settings options for the widget so it has a chance to take advantage of the social network market, and maybe a “start small” option so it only expands when someone clicks a “add to cart” button.
Everything you need to know or see, is at the rightcart homepage, i would give the blog url too but at the moment of writing this, the rightcart blog seems down.
Flogd is the newest entry in this niche of e-stores in a widget space and they have come up with quite a different approach from the other options presented before, and that is because the widget is in flash, something not really rare for all kinds of widgets, since it is the easiest form to spread a widget around anywhere, and that is what they are going for with this widget, the entire action of your browsing and purchase happens inside the widget like with Rightcart, no need to go elsewhere with it, and it can be placed around in any social network and blog given is done in flash.
And there is something more to it that can make it extremely tempting, it is free to use.
The only thing that people seems worry about is the security and how trusted the company can be with the data. well, some of those concerns are resolved Here and as one of the founders says in that post it is all about of perception and the fear of new. so i may try this flogd widget myself down the line once it has evolved a little more.
One of the things needed before it can gain adoption is also to offer a sidebar widget version of it and even the option to get fully customized versions for full branding convenience.
You can see a video of how to create your widget, you can see the screencast in Flogd homepage and a sample of the actual functional widget.
And here you got them , these are the very best examples of e-stores in a widget you will find so far, from the early competitor to the new novel flash based and daring try.
Any of them can do the job of providing you a easy e-commerce experience, but one thing that is sure, is that they are meant for the casual and medium sellers for the most part. since a full fledged web 2.0 e-store system is yet to come, it is needed some kid of special layout and a easy to add system like the one in these widgets. however, i believe that the real innovation for a full e-store solution in a widget is entirely possible to do, just not in the way they have been done so far, i think that such widgets will arrive thanks to Silverlight, AIR and even Javafx. but in the meantime the best you can do if you are interested in easy e-commerce is to check the options listed here.
Many people would like to create simple widgets that deliver information on a topic that interests them. But sometimes it isn’t point blank obvious how to do this. It’s pretty simple using existing tools that are completely free and don’t even require a registration.
(widget has built in code so friends can copy your widget)
Here I have used Yourminis RSS widget to display an RSS feed from Google Blog Search. I went to Google Blog Search and typed in the keywords Nudity and Naked. The search returns all blog postings recently crawled by Google that include those terms. Then I just grabbed the RSS address and popped it into the RSS widget, tweaked some minor settings such as height/width and color. Then I grabbed the code and pasted it here for you to see.
This is about 5 minutes work. The longest part of this process is generally deciding what topics to search. My next attempt will be naked images or video. I can’t wait !
This story is designed to generate interest. Nudity is interesting but this is really about how to create a widget that delivers the information you want. I just picked nudity for the fun of it.
UPDATE: I am OUT of invites again. When I get more I will post.
Pownce is a fun alternative to Twitter. It allows you to send “notes” to friends and admirers and you can even share files. It’s invite only and there aren’t very many invites around (that I know of)
If you want to try out Pownce just leave a comment that includes your email that you wanted associated with Pownce.
The NGC Taboo widget simply shows you two cards each with an image and a caption. The caption is generally designed to be shocking to the senses. You then have to decide which you would rather do and then click on the one that you prefer. You then find out what percentage of people have agreed or disagreed with you.
Some of the questions include eating things like snake parts or spiders. Others include doing things naked or participating in naked activities. This is tied directly into a promotion for a National Geographic series titled “Taboo” that begins Aug 9th
Hmmm…
This makes me wonder if a similar widget is offered in other areas of the world where things we westerners do, seem taboo?
There is no registration required. The embed code is found right on the widget so your friends can grab it from you. This is a Flash widget that seems to load very smoothly. It is possible to edit the code to change the height and width of the widget. However, if your goal is to reduce the widget size you won’t have much luck. The widget becomes almost unreadable as it approaches sidebar size. (default width is 400 px)
I would like to see the same widget available in a more sidebar friendly format. Maybe stack the images instead of the default side by side layout. This might get more people interested in placing it on their blogs!
For starters it comes from PCMag.com An online magazine dedicated to PC news not Apple news. So, of course the seriousness needs no to be accepted as pure drama.
They say that they have contacted the iPhone people and…
Apple says that after 400 charges, the phone will hold 80% of a charge. Alas, they wouldn’t tell us any more than that. (When we inquired, they skirted the issue.)
This is a good joke on Apple and fun for iPhone users.
But I find it difficult to call this a widget.
First, there is no code to copy or download. It appears to simply be a website that you would keep as your homepage. Who would do this? It might be a shade more popular if there were a Google search bar embedded on the page (a Google widget). You also might want to include some adsense (it’s not a website without adsense)
FBFactory.com just launched today. They plan on building custom apps for Facebook.
If you or your company desire being on Facebook with more than just a profile. You’re going to need some real exposure and to get this you will have to appear on thousands of profiles. The only way to do this is to create something that everyone on Facebook wants…and then give it to them.
This is where FBFactory comes in. They have over 10 years web design experience and have been on Facebook since day one. So they know the ropes.
FBFactory utilizes a five step process to create your custom Facebook widget app. This is the best way to “get it done” as they say.
Here are the apps they have created so far:
Crush –This allows you to find out who likes you. (has a crush on you)
Profile Picture — Here you can send and receive photos and also post big photos on your photo wall.
Who’s Hotter? — Pick the Hottie voting/rating who do you find more appealing?
As you can see FBFactory is just starting out (launched today) but they have their head in the right game.
Well, it was about time, just today i saw that digg has finally launched a blog widget, and because i had to head home, Pete cashmore got the story first, yes a Official Digg Blog widget, and it is in specific a blog/website widget because it is a Javascript widget, so most social networks will not be sporting it, this to me seems like a well planned decision, streaming digg content in blog sidebars means a bigger spread of what digg is and staying more in context of what digg does, because believe it or not, not everyone uses Digg, and given how they were looking to get bigger usage numbers and there are more and more discussions about when the next digg is going to appear, that the better way to defend the fort and hope to make it bigger was with brand spread, and with this kind of widget, for something like digg, it cannot get any better than that.
thankfully the widgets is great, size and color customizable, several default looks and a perfectly working widget, with a interesting extra, you can customize a lot what the widget will show, so it can even only show stories from a domain in specific, so if your blog got some dugg stories, you can now sport them in your blog in timely fashion.
It appears as though some smaller news organizations are realizing the importance of widgets.
CentreDaily.com the official website for the Centre Daily Times (State College Pennsylvania) has created the CDT Yahoo! widget that displays news and events as they are posted to the website.
(this widget requires the Yahoo! widgets program to be installed in order to work.)
Widget or not?
We’ve been asking that question lately, and readers have been responding by downloading our widget on CentreDaily.com.
It’s a first for us and actually a first in the country — a Yahoo! widget set up by a newspaper to offer headlines in a most convenient way.
It doesn’t feel groundbreaking, but we won’t argue. We will, however, invite you to try it and join about 1,000 Web readers who already have downloaded it to their desktops.
The widget allows you to view our headlines, and you can decide if you want breaking news, local news, sports, Penn State sports, business and entertainment.
Creating this widget using the Yahoo! widget engine is a step in the right direction. The obvious next step, would be the creation of viral web widget. Something that can be placed on CentreDaily’s readers sites and easily copied to others sites.
If I was in charge of the CentreDaily.com widget decision making team, I would take a long hard look at YourMinis.com and really consider using their RSS widget. It’s tasteful and very viral!
Everyone knows wishlists, they went mainstream thanks to amazon, and then they became a common module, add-on in social networks, start pages and some Blog platforms. but then people wanted more control over them, and wanted to have a community behind them and even more services appeared to supply such demand, today the demand is still there, but the best is that you can pretty much extend such wishlist stand alone services and take a widget with you to let people know what you want to be gifted with.
They serve a good reason, people will get a sense of your taste and it gives you more chances to get stuff you actually want.
So,lets check out some of them:
Wisheus
A basic wishlist pseudo social network, that seems to be better just as reference for the wishlist, the main focus of it are the widgets, and the widgets are ok, easily to configure and it gives you various option to configure them in both size and color, something that we can appreciate, one thing that bothers me for some reason, is the site itself, it is boring, the yellowish tone in it feels to mellow for my taste and it seems that for others too because i was searching for people in it as reference and only encountered left behind accounts and blank accounts, something which don´t seems like a nice reference to the network, either the fact that i really don´t get a clue of who do this thing or if the network is already in zombie state, but the widget is solid enough and easy to set for anyone that wants it:
Here is the demo, that does a good job offering a preview to users without having to try the service: Wisheus Demo
Wishpoint
A proper wishlist based social network, heavily modeled after Amazon, with a search powered by shopping.com, that does good Pr, sustains Blogs of the company and it is very transparent about who created the network, which is a good way to inspire confidence in it. The network and service was founded by ex-MS employees whose were very much into also invest in royal premises like Amazon, aquantive and such, something that can be useful, because that way you know you are not using a service that is going to go away into thin air like with other start ups.
The design sense of the site is a little web 1.0 but the mindset behind the service makes up for it.the network is crowded, you can find like minded people or play your way with other members in terms of wishlists, easy to use and what is more important, it produces a solid, glossy, customizable widget you can use.
The best for the last, Boxed up is a Social network around wishlist, who take very serious their network since it is not only about the social aspect of it but also run a little marketplace of shops from where you can wish things up, it is more modern, very easy and straightforward in the way you can navigate and use, and they have two way of you posting a widget, in flash or in script form, so, you can post it really everywhere you want it.
It has a solid design done by this side up, a solid network and it is pleasant to use. i have real no complains about the service, but i do wish it would have a demo page and a clear about us in the site.
There is no doubt that widgets are here to stay. Whether you personally use them or not, most likely you have seen them. After all, 2007 is supposedly the year of the widget. At least this is what we keep hearing.
I have been involved in something widget related since early 2005, when I started writing about the templates that I had modified for Blogger.(templatedblog) I wanted to be able to add “more” to the templates or allow the people that used the templates to add “more”. This is when I started to collect what I called “add-ons”. Now referred to as “widgets” I simply added them to the sidebar for display. Almost all are linked to their creators site. I did not blatantly link them or highlight them in anyway. I was still very BlogNoob! This led to SiteStuff and then to widgetslab.blogspot and then to widgetslab.com
I don’t want to define a widget, it’s been done and done again. What I am interested in defining what makes a good widget. What makes a widget popular to the point that the widget developers have to purchase more servers to keep up with demand? What are blog and website owners looking for? What is it that turns them away? These are a few of the questions I’d like to answer.
First and foremost
A widget must be appealing to both the blogger and the reader. It must serve a purpose that engages a blog’s readers.
For example: The Feedburner headline animator displays a certain number of posts from any blog with a feedburner account. I use it at the top to entice readers to view more content on this blog. (it works!)
Less appealing: Clocks in any form. They appeal to the blog creator but the blog readers don’t care. Most, if not all computers have a clock that is constantly displayed. This reduces the clock widget’s value to nothing more than decoration.
Another example: The VodPod widget. This widget ties directly into your VodPod account. When you “BookMark” any video using the VodPod system, it automatically shows up in your widget. Your readers can view any of your bookmarked videos right on your blog. Your readers stay longer and are more engaged.
Keeping readers on site longer is very important. With the newly proposed metrics to measure a blog’s “importance”…a longer visit is what you want.
Acquisition
The ultimate widget requires no registration. There is no need to travel to the widget home page to get the embed codes. It’s all right there in the widget.
Every developer dreams of a “Viral” widget. Mass widget use by millions of bloggers and social profile creators. Well, this is what is required to make a winning widget viral. Easy adoption, minimal hassle and simple instructions.
Custom options
If you consider creating a widget, the first thing you need to do is think about all of the different sites out there that you would like your widget on. Does each blog or profile look the same? No! These pages shine with their makers creativity. These makers are a lot less likely to use your widget if you insist on limiting their creativity. Give them every conceivable custom option that you can.
Some of the more important custom options include colors, sizes and titles. Don’t forget the smaller options such as border styles, rounded or square corners, background image instead of color, transparency etc..The actual list of options is only limited by your imagination.
Performance
The widget you design must load at blazing speed. Most bloggers won’t tolerate slow load times for widgets. They know that a slow load time translates to visitor loss. Unfortunately, we are becoming a people with less time to do more stuff in. So this is a very important consideration.
Revenue
You are probably thinking that this is all good, but how do I pay for all this? In the beginning you will have out of pocket expenses. As your widget starts gaining acceptance those costs will creep up as well. Remember…your widget is appearing on thousands of pages now. Maybe you should consider selling a small amount of ad space on your widget. Perhaps the ad could appear upon mouseover of the widget or it simply appears in a corner as a simple “sponsor icon”. Your widget disclaimer/terms of use should address this from the beginning.
I know there is something missing but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
One of the thing i always had envy from wordpress, was Askimet, and when one does think in Automattic, one does think up in Askimet after thinking in Wordpress of course, but they do more than that.
They also produce bbPress, a forum software but what it needs to be known is more about the plugins they produce and more important the Widgets they produce and tools you can use to improve your widget use in wordpress.
So, here are some good links that some of you may have not visited yet:
I have a short time in Widgets Lab, that is of course very true, But Derek asked me to join in so i could see in what WL could improve, could expand. and one of those things is the Coverage it does.
Widgets have changed a great deal in the almost 10 months now that Derek has been doing this Blog, The term widget has been scrambled, extended and even remixed into what it originally meant, the nomenclature now has turned unclear.
Widgets now can be everything, from simple apps, to gadgets in windows vista, to modules in Live Spaces, and even to the result of the new trends that are to come and the next gen of widgets we are now starting to see in Alpha states thanks to the Mash-up Engines and the new code from where they will be powered and developed (Silverlight / AIR / JavaFX)
So, what should be added to our coverage?, please vote and if possible, leave a comment:
Most of the talk that came out of the recent WidgetCon was more focused on widgets being either founded by VC money, getting bought, partnerships and ways of getting all of that while also being in the game.
In a few words: it truly was a widgetcon with a serious biz theme, more than big launches or showing of new kind of widgets.
Such goals have been managed very well with companies like Clearspring and Widgetbox among others, however there are still holes in the way from developing, to distributing, to the end audience using the widgets, and that is where Wildfire from Gigya get into, since it is not just a developer helper like Clearspring or a channel of distribution like with Widgetbox, is more of Agent, a very proactive one, it gets you want you need to get your widgets up if you get in a partnership with them, and after that, it will provide you with a channel of distribution in 12 social networks,the stats you need to measure up your attach rate and general success, and finally, to monetize your widgets, so both can win money of it and well,do Biz.
So, if you got a widget company/start up, or you are starting fiddling with the idea of entering in this crazy widget marketplace, then you know you got another option where to look.
Stumble this!
