Widgetslab: September 2006

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Looking for weather? Try out Weather Bonk: revisited

Weather Bonk is a very easy to use site. It details current and forecast weather around the globe. Bonk uses the very easy to use Google maps(by default). This allows you to zoom in to your location, use satelite view if you wish or a combination of satelite and map. You can access U.S. radar as well. Surface temp readings and current wind conditions are available as well. There are options for choosing the weather service that you want also.
I would say this is a kick-ass site to visit if you care at all about the weather.

Now the best part:
All of this can be put on your blog...FREE! And the settings for the Bonk widget are just what you want. You can select the height and width, the weather services, the locations, if you want wind data displayed, units of measure, type of view (map, satelite etc...) and the map service (Google, MSN or Yahoo) This type of customization ROCKS!!! I say visit Weather Bonk today to get your very own "Bonk Widget"

Adding Flickr Badge to your blog: revisited

Flickr Badge is one of the most popular photo widgets out there. For good reason. It works! The layout and set-up are easy to understand. You just have to decide between the flash badge(animated) or the HTML badge and of course what pictures to display.

The hardest part of the Flickr badge is locating it on the flickr site. Nothing that I could see on Flickr jumped out and said "click here for Flickr Badge" so I will include a link to the Flickr Badge page here. (log into Flicker before you click here)

Flickr Badge

Once you have created your badge and copied your code you need to log into your blog editor then go to your template and find a good spot to put in the code. I don't think the code comes centered so you may have to put the code in some open and closed center tags if you want it centered that is.
<> code here

That should do it for the Flickr Badge.
If you have any questions...leave a comment or send me an email.

Flickr Badge
Flickr (main)
Flickr forum post with mods for the badge

Last FM Show off the music you like as you listen to it

Last FM has a web widget that shows off the music tracks that you are currently listening to. There is a download and installation to read the track titles etc. It installed painlessly, asked what music player I used and was done. I had to tell my firewall it was ok. I did notice that they have covered just about every OS. So you can use it also.

The web widget is really what we are concerned with here. First you get to select the type of display. Whether you want recent tracks, weekly track list, weekly artist list etc... Then You get to pick the appearance. There are hundereds to choose from or, GET THIS, you can make your own. You can include a photo for a background, change the colors etc... This is cool! Most widgets allow some customization to the size and color, maybe text as well. But this is a step above.

As I write this, Aerosmith: No more No more live is playing and Last FM is "Scrobbling" it(sounds like a sex term) so it will display in the widget you will find in the left sidebar.
This is a fun widget if people can listen to the tracks that I am listening to. (if they want) I did notice that if you click on the widget it brings you to my Last FM page where you can see the tracks I have listened to. There you have the option to listen to, trade for or purchase each track or the entire CD. (from Amazon) I would assume this is how Last FM pays the bills and I think it's a sweet idea.

Last FM (main)
deralaand's "Last FM user page"

Friday, September 29, 2006

netWeather2.0 by Accuweather

First of all, I like the name, Accuweather. The weather forecasts are hardly accurate. Everything is partly this or a chance of that. But I do like this widget. It loads pretty fast and it looks good. There are about six different sizes to choose from, including one that is optimized for MySpace and eight colors to choose from. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to customize the colors or sizes further.
Depending on the size widget that you choose, you will see current conditions, temp, radar, and five to fifteen day forecasts. Some of the links on the widget take you to larger radar images as well as animations. There is also a video link that takes you to Accuweather.com Videos. This is a collection of weather related news stories. Including breaking news about hurricanes.

I would definitely recommend this widget to anyone that wants a weather widget for their blog.
I discovered this widget on The Blogging Times
Accuweather widget page
Accuweather.com (main)

Yelp! Be a critic

Yelp! allows you to be a critic. This is something everyone should be good at, unless you don't have an opinion about anything, in which case you may be dead.(check with your doctor)
You can review any type of business that you patronize. From convenience stores to laundramats. It's your opinion, share it.
I went through the process of setting up an account and email verification. This was pretty much standard procedure. My ultimate goal, obviously, was to get the badge/widget(customizable) to display for this review.
From other Yelp! widgets that I have seen on other sites, it helps to have more than one review. It also helps if you know the address and phone number for the place you are reviewing. Yelp! does perform a search for the business, looking for that info, but...
Another factor in populating your map with businesses...live somewhere other than the retail wasteland I live in.
Yelp! Is a must have widget if you live to tell others your opinion!

Click here to see my Yelp! page.
Click here to go to Yelp! (main)
Click here to see another Yelp! user Howard Lindzon

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Rate it all: Create a list and and readers rate it

Rate it All.com (of course) Allows users to create lists of whatever you want. These lists are then coupled with the old five star rating system. I'm sure I don't need to explain that.
There are plenty of other options that come with these lists. Like email notification or follow the list with an RSS feed. The lists can be added to MyYahoo or you can share it with a friend etc...
Anyhow, your new list has a choice of two codes, java/script or static html. Either one should work with the major blogging platforms. The java being preferred because it updates regularly.
I think rated lists are a great way to find out what your readers like or what they may want to see you work on.
I am considering adding one of these list widgets in the future. For now you'll just have to deal with the one I stick in the post.

Most Annoying Things on the Internet (5=most annoying) - View All
	Pop Up Ads (50)
	E-mails advertising ways to increase bust size/penis size (36)
	Viruses/Worms (31)
	"Phishing" (4)
	E-mail chain letters (25)
	"SpyWare" (15)
	SPAM (general) (23)
	Porn SPAM (e-mail) (23)
	Slow-loading websites (20)
	Flash Ads (2)
	Cookies (1)
	Computer Freezing (14)
	Bad/ "Broken" Links (16)
	AOL (in general) (26)
	Sites which require extra downloads for viewing (.pdf files, Flash, etc.) (10)
	Chat rooms (21)
	Frequent Disconnections (10)
	Outdated Websites (6)
RateItAll.com - A network for opinionated individuals.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

BBC music cube

**CAUTION This post and the widget contained are slow, very slow! CAUTION**

I was told about this widget from David Holmes. Now this is an interesting widget. It allows you to pick your favorite music from general categories that break down further to sub categories. As you pick out your music tastes, these colored boxes that represent each particular genre, stack on one another to form your music tower. I am assuming that the music tower is then displayed on your blog, allowing your readers to view and listen to the type of music that you appreciate. All played from Internet radio.

However the first thing I noticed is the site is very slow( could be time of day) go pour a drink, pop some popcorn, kiss your partner. When you get back the site will almost be done loading. Most people wil leave the site long before this. But I hung in there to see what happens. You do not need to register to use this service, which is a plus. But you don't get to pick individual songs either. Again, you decide. Here have a look.

Thank you David for the heads up

I have changed my mind and took out the widget. It's to glitchy. It locked up Firefox three times and gave Blogger fits. So all you will see here is a screenshot and I'll post a link to the site.
Visit the link at your own risk **VERY SLOW**

BBC music cube

If you like Google, here's a widget

Google search widget. It allows your readers to search google from your blog and they recieve the results right in the widget. They don't have to leave your site to get the search results. Sweet!
Their are 6 pages of skins for this widget. So I'm sure you may be able to find one that fits you and your blog.

This widget comes from MuseStorm.com

Travelocity.com widget

I figured I had better give equal billing. Here is a Travelocity.com widget. Again it looks good and has the basic fields for locating the flight, car rental or hotel that you are looking for. From the widget your users will be sent to the Travelocity.com website for futher information on ther travel plans. This widget may serve to remind a blog reader to make those arrangements or to start planning a trip. Either way the widget would be a nice addition to any blog that has anything to do with vacations or travel.

This widget comes from LabPixies.com/travelocity

Priceline.com widget

Here is a Priceline.com widget from a third party. It looks cool and seems to function fairly well. I am not much of a traveler, so I may not have much use for something like this, but I thought it was cool so I added it.
It is in an iframe format widget. So if iframe doesn't work with your blog host, don't use it. This widget comes LabPixies.com/priceline

Monday, September 25, 2006

Blufr a fun widget

Blufr--powered by Answers.com is a fun Widget. The widget comes in three sizes, but I think it is designed to fit wherever you put it. This is a trivia Widget. Yes or no questions are asked. You select an answer and you are sent to the Blufr site for the answer. Once there you can keep playing to attain a high score or email a Bluf to your friends or sign up for a "Bluf a day" in your email. So much for getting any work done.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Hand rolled logo

My 13 yr. old daughter created a different logo for Widgetslab. I asked her older brother if he would like to create it, but I found out that he was currently grounded from the computer. I just wanted to share.

Faces.com Popular

Faces.com has very cool widgets for your blog. (it made 4 categories on this blog) They offer an embeddable display for your photos. They also integrate TuneFeed player into their whole "Mashup". The mp3 player is also embeddable in a website.
Faces.com is a socializing site where you can browse other users, rate their photos and playlists. You can embed any users photos or playlists in your blog if you wish.

Faces.com (main)
TuneFeed (main)
Faces post by Mashable
Faces post bt Techcrunch