If you have been blogging for quite a while already, you know that your archives section is already quite overwhelming. Sometimes you might feel like highlighting your previous entries but it’s just too much of a hassle or it might be too difficult to dig them up because of the number of entries. In any case, you could actually check out this widget called Around This Date in the Past. It is based on the following plugins:
“One year ago” plugin
Wayback plugin
Wayback widget
“Around this date in the past” plugin

Default settings:
It shows a list of a week’s worth of entries that were posted around a year before the current date.

What you could set:
Title of the widget
Number of days’ posts before and after a year ago that will appear
Mode of the widget.
Mode 1: get posts around this date from ?X? years ago.
Mode 2: get posts around this date for the last ?X? years.
Mode 3: get posts around this date since year ?X?.
Limit of number of posts to be retrieved

That makes the widget really fun to use. After all, you could have three modes to choose from when it comes to diplaying past entries.

Here’s another good reason to use this plugin: It creates more internal links. A rather good tactic for search engine optimization. Maybe that would convince you to use this widget if you have not really thought of a practical use for it. Either way, it is an interesting plugin. Just grab it so you could enjoy using it already.

Note: The creator’s blog is mainly in Spanish but try posting comments about it anyway in case you have difficulty in using it. There are English versions of the plugin page so you shouldn’t worry too much.

It looks like people are constantly seeing how useful WordPress widgets could be. Considering the download stats. that is. You could see the spike in the graph when it was initially released in late March. What is it about widgets that people can’t help but use them?

WordPress widgets make your blog more visually appealing and also more interactive and informative. You have all these kinds of widgets that interact with other sites like Library Thing and Squirl. You can even include Google Gadgets on your blog so that you have games on it. Even horoscopes are available for your widget (thanks to Patrick Chia). Considering how easy it is to use these widgets, no wonder people keep on downloading and installing them. And without the widgets plugin, this is simply not possible.

Aside from that, development of WordPress widgets and plugins are still on-going. Seems that this avenue for creating widgetized versions of plugins and widget-friendly themes makes people all the more interested. Each of us would like to make our blogs fancier or more reader-friendly and as such we dare experiment with so many things.

Then again, widgets is not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. Some people like their blogs as they are. Just the entries, archives and calendar. But now that blogs have evolved to be some kind of content management system for different purposes, you can’t help but be so amazed at everything that has happened and everything people have done to improve it. Who says blogging is just for geeks? Who says otherwise? There’s something in blogging for everyone and it might be the way for people to see creativity in everyone, be it in a geeky way (because of the development of widgets and plugins) or because of the ways they could use their blogs.

The WordPress Widgets plugin has the text widgets there by default. There are other text widgets that are available online. Some of them are even capable of better things liek inserting HTML and PHP. It’s really interesting.

Funky things you could do with the text widget:

• Adding information about you.
  Maybe if you have your blogger code or your geek code, you could put there. Or a brief biography.


• Adding information about your blog.
  Just a little snippet so first time visitors would be able to see what your blog is all about and get their attention.


• Adding a poem.
  If you have a poem that basically says what your life philosophy is, why not add it using the text box widget?


• Instant status reports.
  If you just want quick updates on your sidebar as to your status, you could place them using the text widget. Hmmm. Maybe for example you’re hooked on to watching Iron Chef or playing some game, you could add something like “Currently addicted to (whatever thing or show)” on it. Nifty, right?

There are so many other things you could do with the text widgets. Only you could limit yourself as to how creative you can get on your own blog. If you would like to learn a bit more of the basics, of blogging you could check out some blog tutorials. That way you could decide on what you would do with your own blog and figure out what widgets would be suitable.

It’s written in the stars, as some people would say. As such, they’d like to know what their horoscopes are every single day! Oh boy, it’s not just enough to look at it from the newspaper. You just have to share it with everybody else who is reading your blog! It’s part of the fun and for some people, the paranoia that the stars are conspiring against you.

Patrick Chia has a plugin for those who would like such a thing on their blogs. This WordPress geek seems to have a lot of widgets on his projects page. Anyhow, the horoscope widget gets the daily horoscope from Evled.com’s horoscpe section.

Good things:
You could have a cute header text describing that section of your blog. You could have something like “Signs and wonders: A Gemini’s daily horoscope” or “Written in the stars for Aries” or even “Zodiac Crazy Scorpio.” Nice, right? It would be easy to fit in your blog’s overall look and feel.

You could easily just select your zodiac sign from the drop-down list when you customize it from the Presentation; Sidebar Arrangement; Widgets part of your blog. If you’re not certain what your zodiac sign is, there’s no need to worry. The dates are included in the list, just right beside the particular zodiac sign. Nifty huh?

The not so good things:
Wouldn’t it be better if there’s an image associated with the zodiac signs? In newspapers, it’s easy to find the zodiac signs because of the symbols included.
If you don’t like the source of the horoscopes, you can’t really change it unless you can tweak the widget itself so that you could have a different source.

Don’t you just love these widgets? Whether you’re a blogging newbie or a problogger, you sure could play around with them!

Do you have a way with words? Or maybe even a great fascination for them? If you’re a word geek, show the world by adding the associative dictionary widget on your sidebar! I first saw on it giagia.co.uk and I simply was intrigued. After all, it said on the sidebar “GiaGiaDictionary” so I just had click the words. Some of them have definitions already, some don’t.

As the description of it goes:

...it adds a dictionary to your site and displays words from it through ajax calls. All the words in the description are links themselves, so you can keep wandering through the words. If a word has no description, a small form is displayed to make one up.

Interactive fun!

The Associative Dictionary could be quite fun. If you have people visiting your blog and happened to be intrigued by your ‘dictionary,’ they would probably start checking out the different words in the definition you have. It seems as though GiaGiaDictionary has quite a number of words already so with each time I click and add my own definitions of words, I get new ones. It is quite addictive as I don’t notice how many words I gave definitions to or how many words I have checked out definitions of.

Stumped?

If you don’t seem to have a nice definition for certain words, you could always click the back button and you will get back to the word you were checking out. If you feel like adding some definition to the word selected, go ahead and just write your own definitions. It certainly is fun because sometimes you would see other people’s biases and backgrounds through the definitions they add. If you are currently in another country like Japan, wouldn’t it be fun if you let your Japanese friends add their own definitions in your Associative Dictionary? That was you get to interact in some ways.

About the creator

You could get this from the dirkie.nu blog. It seems that it is his second plugin. The creator has his own associative dictionary but it is in the Dutch language, not English.

The King of all calendar widgets!

It has features you won’t be able to resist:

• support for the Events Calendar Plugin


• four HTML fields available for customization


• set it to show up on any of the following pages:
  • Home / Search / Archive / 404 page
  • all pages or a special Page (just set the page_id or slug of where you want it to show up)
  • all or special single Article (as with pages, just set where you’d like it to show by indicating the id or slug)
    
  • all or special Category listing
  
  
  • inside a special Category, List or Article

The nice thing with these features is that you could so much more with the Calendar. If for example, you have a category called Events (where you put the schedule of your events and maybe a bit of news), it would be nifty to have the calendar show up. Also, if you allow it display the Events (especially if you are using the Events Calendar Plugin), that is awesome. You don’t need to have so much trouble in setting it up.

Customizing your blog so that your calendar will be different, thanks to those additional HTML fields, is also a nifty thing. You can make sure that it would stand out or blend in on your page.

Download link.
Prerequisite: King widgets framework.

Would you like something soothing on your blog and still be widget-friendly so that you would not find it difficult to work with it? If so, there is the blue horizon theme by Kaushal Sheth. It is a predominantly blue and green theme and as such, you could feel the calm and cool aura of the theme.

Things to like about the theme:

• The cool and calm feel.
  This is really amazing. The header image is that of rolling hill and you could see the clouds there too. Really soothing.


• Header navigation – you could put your links to your blog’s static pages there. Or a link to another blog you update regularly.


• Blockquotes – The style is cute. When you blockquote something, there are left and bottom borders, even for the ones nested inside those blockquotes. Really cute because you could distinguish the blockquotes from the rest of the posts.


• Fonts – sans serif and rounded fonts


• Categories and subcategories – They are indicated underneath the titles of the posts.


• Widget-friendly – This is definitely something positive about it.

This is one of the themes by Kaushal Sheth and it really looks quite usable. Any blogger could easily use it and feel at home with it. This theme might be quite good with blogs with themes that center on reflection like a parenting blog or maybe travelling, especially if you feel like the default header image reminds you of your favorite place to relax. You could view the testrun here. You could also download the theme from here.

We all have to admit, however, that Gtalk does have its downsides. For those of us who have been using another instant messaging client for years (Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger), the adjustment may not be welcome. Believe you me, though, the adjustment period does not take that long. And, with the improvements that Google is making, everything just becomes much more convenient.

Take for instance the new widget that allows file transfer in the web version. This file transfer feature has been available in the independent Gtalk client for quite some time now, but those who do not have the client installed know how frustrating it can be to have to attach a file to an e-mail rather than instantaneously transfer through the chat window.

Well, your frustrations are over. Late in March, Google added the functionality to the web version as well as Orkut. This means that you can use any computer, log on to your Google account, and transfer files using the chat window without having to create a new message.

Oh, I have to be clearer I think – this functionality is available through iGoogle chat and NOT the Gmail account. In the near future, though, this should also be available via your Inbox chat as well.

If you have an Android phone, though, and you are liking Google Buzz (I actually do like it, to be honest with you), you might want to know that there is a widget that will help you use Google Buzz more easily. I am still wanting a Google Nexus One phone, but only God knows when that is going to happen. I did have a chance to play with one – a friend is lucky enough to have the means to purchase one immediately – and I have to say that it rocks!

Anyway, so what’s the buzz about the Google Buzz widget for Android phones? For one, it lets you post text with a single tap! Not only that, you can upload photos with the same amount of effort. Pretty neat for lazy people, huh? More so, the app has the capability of working in the background, allowing you to do other stuff (PLAY) on your phone while it uploads whatever you want. Those of you with Android phones – here’s your chance to play!

What’s the best thing about this move? You may already know that Twitter users can access their tweets AND update their tweets through Yahoo’s plethora of products. In effect, we can say that Yahoo has made itself a Twitter client. Obviously, this allows for more flexibility and accessibility on the part of the user – which is always a good thing.

On the widgets end, I will not be surprised to see widgets at the center of this flexibility and accessibility campaign. Perhaps in a few months – maybe less – we will be hearing of Yahoo-Twitter widgets that will make tweeting an even easier and more fun activity.

There aren’t a lot of specific details as of now, but it seems that both parties are very excited about the merger. According to Bryan Lamkin, the senior vice president of Yahoo’s consumer products group, they’re “turning the key to the online social universe — you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo! We’re also simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds — and the world —- together for easy access.”

Twitter is just as happy with this statement: “The information in one single tweet can travel light-years farther with this Yahoo! integration. Tweets in more places brings relevance where and when you need it most.”

I suppose it’s a win-win for them, but my question is: will we (the users) also come out as winners? I hope so!