Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
II
According to the WordPress.com support pages, the Text widget is the most popular widget of all,
for three reasons:
•
Its power
•
Its flexibility
•
The ability to use multiple instances of the Text widget in a single blog for various purposes
The Text widget is so popular that many plug-ins—the big brothers of widgets, which are only
available to WordPress software-based blogs, as described in Chapter 10—are available for enhanc-
ing the power of the Text widget. One example is the WYSIWYG Text widget, which makes it easy
to add colors, links, and images to the Text widget without knowing code.
Content Providers for the Text Widget
If you want to get a lot of power into the Text widget quickly, several content providers provide
code that you can simply cut and paste into your Text widget. Your Text widget becomes a gate-
way into their blog.
Here are some of our favorites that relate directly to your blog:
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Babelfish Yahoo Translation
—This service translates your blog for visitors. This is a marvelous
service for visitors because many web users have English as their second or third language; a
translation into their own language helps them get more out of your blog and improve their
English at the same time.
•
ClustrMaps
—This is a hit counter that tracks where your blog visitors come from. It is fun, infor-
mative, and likely to generate comments.
•
Delicious
—This site, shown in Figure 6.7, is probably the most influential social media site for
bloggers to blog about blogging—and track what they like most. Getting attention on this site
sends your visits skyrocketing. Check it out—then join.
Here are a few content providers that add functionality to your blog:
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Bitty Browser
—People can surf the Web in a widget! Shown in Figure 6.8, Bitty Browser is
great for helping people go someplace you recommend without really leaving your blog at all. It
is highly configurable and hours of fun.
•
Flickr
—Get into your Flickr photos. This is great if you're a Flickr user, or willing to become one
to easily add photos to your blog.
•
Last.fm and Pandora
—Get the latest charts from Last.fm and favorite songs on Pandora. Let
people listen while they surf your blog!
•
YouTube
—You can have a permanent YouTube window in your blog. It's great fun, but perhaps
a good way to lose visitors who go off to YouTube instead?
