Mercora.com is a music centered social network. This means I probably heard about them on Mashable. (because they rock!)
Well…Mercora has the idea that widgets will help them spread the word about their social network. I think they are right! They also figured out that people don’t need to register to get widgets.
No registration required!
The widgets they have created are built using Flash. this makes them “Anywhere” widgets. I think they had Myspace effect in mind when they created them.
The Myspace effect is essentially this…mass adoption of your widget, app, program or whatever, by millions of people. Nothing wrong with that!
Widgets
So far, I have seen four widgets on the Mercora site. The nice thing about these widgets, they are not just different variations on the same widget. Each one does something different.
The first and second
The first two are simply music search boxes that allow you to add the Mercora Music Search to your Myspace or blog. One is designed to easily fit into your sidebar and the other looks to fit perfectly into the “About me” section of a typical Myspace page.
The third
The third widget is not Myspace friendly! it uses Iframe and JavaScript to function. It is very customizable down to the littlest details. (if you don’t mind editing the code)
Mercora describes this widget
Adding a “Now Playing” Mercora Music iframe to your Web site or Blog gives your visitors a feature-rich music experience that increases Web site “stickiness” and “eye balls,” attracting new, more frequent and longer visits. You can customize the now playing iframe to incorporate your own color scheme and your favorite Artist(s) by using the optional customization instructions provided below.
The fourth
The fourth widget is the “Music Matrix” widget you see at the top of the post. This widget allows you to select nine (9) artists to be displayed in the matrix. Each artist image is linked to a biography type information page with links to their music and other useful information. I tried to select some older rock bands with some country artists mixed in and Mercora had no problem finding them. The “Music Matrix” is programmed in Flash so it is very friendly but limited on the customization options.
The verdict
Excellent!
What else can I say?
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hi derek,
many thanks for your comments, i’m glad you’re enjoying our music widgets. kindly stay tuned as we have many interesting developments scheduled for next month.