Widgets Lab

Who is Justin Bieber?

Derek Anderson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:46:24 +0000

He must be someone… because there is a flurry of information about him on the net.

Here is The Justin Bieber official tour widget (from Sproutbuilder)

…looks like a little kid to me.

Get the widget at: http://seed.sproutbuilder.com/pgCtsCm7LUAFntqd

Nokia X6 Comes With Music Edition

Derek Anderson — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:29:50 +0000

I don’t know…but it looked cool!

Use Desktopify to put web widgets on your Desktop

Derek Anderson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:08:26 +0000

Desktopify allows you to put any web widget right on to your desktop. Just about any widget we have written about here on WidgetsLab should work with Desktopify.

The process of converting a web widget into a desktop widget is very simple. Just copy the web widget embed code and paste it into the Desktopify “embed code” field. Modify a couple of settings such as widget size, widget name and choose a category for the Desktopify Widget Gallery.

Create an account and then you will be provided with the tools necessary to promote your widget if you like…or you can simply download and install the widget to your desktop.

Desktopify adds an easy way for businesses to get their already existing widgets onto your desktop with minimal work and no coding or lengthy submission process.

Check out Desktopify today.
http://www.desktopify.com/

Share This has gone completely social

Derek Anderson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:04:24 +0000

You know them…the little green buttons found near the bottom of many thousands of blog posts across the Internet.

Well, Share This has gone social. Create a ShareThis account and now you can tune into what is being shared in real-time across the net.

Check out the ShareThis Stream page to see what they are talking about.

…did you notice that they mentioned a widget in the video?

The widget is still in “invite only” beta. You’ll have to sign up at http://sharethis.com/publishers/stream

Collecta real-time search has custom real-time widget

Derek Anderson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:32:38 +0000

Collecta.com delivers real-time, streaming news stories about the web’s most popular topics.

Collecta.com also now offers a cool, fully customizable widget that delivers the real-time streaming content that you want. The information is delivered in a top down format with the newest information appearing at the top. This widget is similar to the Twitter widget that is offered directly from Twitter. In fact, the Twitter widget in the sidebar of Widgetslab is where I saw a tweet about the Collecta widget that inspired me to write about it.

I created a quick “Google” topic Collecta widget for display purposes. You can imagine how fast the results poured in.

You can pause and un-pause the flow of information in this widget with one click. This is a cool feature if you plan to have a very active topic. A pause button would be a welcome feature for the Twitter widget. (hint, hint Twitter)

One thing I did notice is that Collecta widget allows you to use your own CSS to customize the widget. This is a bit geeky for most users. But the custom CSS option offers you unprecedented control over the appearance of the widget. I personally would prefer that you could choose to either use your own CSS or choose some simple border colors from a palette. (maybe a future option)

Collecta says:

The Collecta Widget Builder lets you make a widget for use in your website. Fill in the fields below, click “Build Widget” and preview the result at right. If you like what you see, grab the code and use it in your site. If not, edit the fields and build again until you are happy with the result.

So, if you are interested in having the latest information on any given topic, displayed right on your site…check out http://widget.collecta.com/