Google Gadget Syndication Directory – What it is and Why You Should Care

The two recent announcements about Open Social and the ability to add Google gadgets to Blogger have some things in common. I speculate that the biggest thing they have in common is the Google Gadget Syndication Directory.

What is it?

It is a “face” of the Google gadget directory that lists gadgets that can be placed on other webpages. The first actual cross platform/product use of it by Google is the new ability to add gadgets to Blogger. I have a hunch it will be used a couple of other place too It has mostly only been used as a place where people who wanted to place a Google gadget on their webpage could grab the code.

Let me show you some of the differences between the syndication Google gadget directory and the iGoogle one (and why you should care about it)

The first big difference is that the Syndication Directory has less gadgets in it because it only lists Google gadgets that can be placed on other pages. To illustrate this, let’s use SearchEngineLand. Lets do a search for “searchengineland” in the iGoogle gadget directory…

Okay, we see the SearchEngineLand has two gadgets to offer to anyone who is hungry for high quality search engine news, that is super.

Now let’s look at the same search in the Google gadget syndication directory….

No results. Poop. How did that happen? Before I explain how that happened let us explore the very real consequences of not being represented in the Syndication directory. Let’s say I am in Blogger and I want to add something to my sidebar, I click “Add Gadget” and then I search for “SearchEngineLand” and you know what? I don’t find anything….

Oh well, guess I won’t add SearchEngineLand to my Blogger sidebar. Now imagine all the other different places that will start to use the syndication directory who won’t be able to add it either.

Why aren’t the SearchEngineLand gadgets (and thousands of other gadgets) in the syndication directory?

Well, one thing is that the syndication directory does not list Google gadgets that are feeds anymore. Hmmm. I speculate that this is because the feed reader type of gadget is something specific to iGoogle, and that the Open Social APIs will have a different way of using feeds for gadgets. But whatever the reason is, it is important to be sure that your brand is represented in the syndication directory. Or else sneaky people like me might take advantage of it

Now let’s look at SEOmoz, even though they have a couple gadgets listed in the iGoogle directory, they only have one in the syndication directory…

The SEOmoz Gadget I made a couple of days ago is sitting all nice a pretty as the ONLY result for the term “SEOmoz”. Which means if someone searches through Blogger…

Think about that for a second… If you are familiar with the syndication directory, you will find there are many opportunities. The syndication directory is here.