Finally, a new widget posting

It's been some time since I have mentioned my love of blog widgets ( see Widgets, Beautiful Widgets, Widgets, Widgets, Widgets, and The Sidebar). Why? Quite honestly, things were getting a bit out of hand and I am sure Rebecca cringed at any mention of adding one more sidebar item to our blog. Today I am making an exception, I found a blog post by Robert Lackie at Library Garden. He linked to a New York Times technology article titled Some Bling for Your Blog. The article provides a short definition of widgets, details how they may be divided into basic categories, and discusses how some bloggers are using widgets.

"Ed Anuff, a co-founder of Widgetbox.com, divides widgets into three categories. 'One is self-expression widgets, like photo galleries, games or YouTube videos that you like,' he said. The second category includes widgets that generate revenue for a blogger, like a box that displays auctions from a particular eBay category, or a blogger’s favorite DVDs from Amazon.com. The third category, Mr. Anuff said, encompasses 'site-enhancement widgets, like discussion forums, news feeds or a guest book, which provide better utility for your Web site."

"Widgetbox is a site begun in September that collects widgets, spotlighting the newest and most popular ones; it offers more than 500 widgets." (Kirsner, NYT.com, 1/18/07)

A technology article, Some Bling does not detail how these may be used by library bloggers specifically, but I have found widget additions such as LibraryThing, WorldCat Beta, and the AU library catalog are great features on my library blogs. For example, with a LibraryThing widget on the IRC web page, I am able to highlight books reviewed on the blog. Having a small AU catalog widget on the IRC book blog allows a patron to search the catalog directly from the blog. Both of these widgets make the blogs more user-friendly.

Tags: Library Garden, NY Times Technology, Blog Widgets, Library blogs