This post highlights fun and useful Twitter Google gadgets for your iGoogle homepage that you might not know about.

Twitter Trends Gadget

This gadget lists the current real time trending topics on Twitter, but unlike other resources, it also explains why they are trending. The Twitter Trends gadget below is live, just mouse over a trending topic to see it’s full description.
The gadget uses info from WhatTheTrend which is a website where users go in and define current trending topics of Twitter.  Be in the know. No need to search for what a trending topic means anymore, just go to your home page. – Add the Twitter trends gadget to Google here

Twitter Photos Gadget

This gadget displays almost realtime the photos posted on Twitter. Click on any photo displayed and it shows you a bigger version right within the gadget. The live gadget below is displaying current photos from Twitter right now.
This gadget uses Twitpic and refreshes automatically every 30 seconds or so with the latest photos posted on Twitter. You can also search for pictures without leaving the gadget. Be careful though… Who knows what photos people will post on Twitter

- Add the Twitter photos gadget to Google here

Twitter Monitor Gadget

This gadget lets you put in a topic (in the example below it is “kittens”) and then displays real time tweets about that topic. You could put in your favorite place (Paris) or your favorite subject (puppy) or a celebrity name or anything else you want to keep track of on Twitter (like your business name or brand).
A very nice Twitter monitor. Find out who is saying what, also it is sorta just cool to see what people are tweeting, and since this gadget is always displaying new tweets, you don’t need to refresh anything,  just watch. – Add the Twitter Topics gadget to Google here

Twitter Gadget

This gadget is a fully functional version of Twitter in a small tidy box. It is also the most popular Twitter Google gadget out there. I listed this gadget last because it requires your username and password, but over 100,000 people use it so I am guessing it is safe.
This gadget is the best one as far as functionality goes, and it boasts the most users of any Twitter Google gadget. – Add the Twitter Gadget to Google here

More Twitter Gadget Places

An updated list of quality Twitter Google gadgets can be found over at Gadzi on their Twitter gadgets page.

This is the way iGoogle tabs are distributed. A page like this is shown to the user who can then decide which of the gadgets will be in the tab.

If a user presses the blue “Add to iGoogle” button, then they are taken to their iGoogle home page and there will now be a new tab of gadgets there…

By using tabs, you can spread more than one gadget at a time. The above example puts a virtual pets tab with six gadgets on a users iGoogle page with one click. This post will tell you how to do this, but first let’s see why we should use an iGoogle tab at all…

Reasons to use iGoogle tabs

• Ranking – If enough people are using your gadgets under a certain tab, there are ranking benefits. If your virtual pet gadget is included in a tab titled “virtual pets” then that is a great indication that your gadget is useful and has something to do with “virtual pets”.
• Distribution – Let’s say you have popular gadgets already in the gadget directory, but also have some new ones as well. You can mix and match your gadgets to help distribute the new ones off the popularity of your old gadgets. For this example I am doing exactly that. There are six gadgets in this virtual pets iGoogle tab. Three of them are very popular (the monkey, panda and the puppy), and three are new (the lion cub, fox, and turtle).
• Promotion – If you have a service you are promoting you can make a couple of themed gadgets around your subject, put them in a tab, and presto, you have something to promote.

How to create an iGoogle tab

To create a tab go to any of your existing tabs on your iGoogle homepage (most people only have the two default tabs – “home” and “chat”). Click the down arrow next to the tab name as shown in image.

Once you click that you will see an option to “add a tab”. Click that and a window will pop up that looks like this…

It will ask you to name the tab you are about to make. Do so wisely. Name your tab for what you would like your gadgets to rank for. If your gadgets are about cars, name it “cars”. Our example one is about virtual pets, so I named it “virtual pets”.

Keep the box checked that says “I am feeling lucky. Automatically add stuff based on the tab name.” This will fill your new tab with gadgets that already rank well for the word or phrase you are naming your tab. Seeing what gadgets Google will fill the tab with lets you know a couple of important things.

1. Who your competitors are – The gadgets that show up are doing well, learn from them and use this information to make better and more useful gadgets for your term.

2. If there are competitors – If Google doesn’t find gadgets for your tab then you have found a niche worth trying.

Okay so now we have an iGoogle tab, what next? I would suggest filling it with your own gadgets! Once you have added your gadgets (and perhaps removed your competitors) look at the tab and see if it offers a useful set of gadgets that are a good fit for the term you used to name the tab. Don’t be afraid to include other peoples gadgets as well. A good goal would be to offer a complete, and helpful set of gadgets. If you named your tab “cars” then make sure there are a good group of gadgets that covers what a user would want about cars (car news, car photos, car videos, etc.).

How to distribute an iGoogle tab

How do you let people know about your tab? The first step is finding out what the share link is so that you can link to the “add tab” page.
To do this go back to that little down arrow next to your new tab…

Click it and choose the “share this tab” option.When you do you will see a window like this…

Do not send this to any friends yet, just send the tab to yourself. Enter your email, and hit send (btw if you have a theme, or user preferences that you want the gadgets in the tab to retain check the “save my settings” box).

You will receive an email that links to the page where users can find your tab as in the image to the right. This page lets an user add the several gadgets within your tab with one click. Very nice.

Now that you are armed with the URL of the tab, go visit and make sure everything looks right and that it is working and displaying well. Make sure you have thumbnail images for all the gadgets in your tab so that the “add tab” page looks pleasing and nice (learn about thumbnail images in my moduleprefs tutorial).

Okay we now have an iGoogle tab full of gadgets, and a URL to share it, let’s promote this baby.

How to promote an iGoogle tab

• First thing I want to say about this is that these “add tab” pages actually can rank rather well so do not be afraid to link to this page lavishly. But how do we get people to go to this “add tab” page.
• If you have a website, feature your iGoogle tab somewhere.
• Using our example, I have a virtual pet Google gadgets page and what I did with this new tab was to make it into sorta an ad. It is in the side bar of that page.
• However and where ever you feature it or link to it from your website, make sure that it is somewhat prominent. You want people to go… “What’s an iGoogle tab?, let’s see….. [click]“
• If you have made a useful set of gadgets then your tab can be shared like any other link. I had a Stephen Colbert tab and it hit the front page of Digg.
• If you do submit to a social sharing / voting site then make sure that you enter the “add tab” page as the URL. Do not link to your own site where you are explaining about it. The reason for this is that Google is a trusted domain. If you are simply linking to a Google “add tab” page, then people who lke the subject will actually feel okay voting up, whereas a blog post about how gosh darn nifty your tab is will appear spammy.
• Link to it from within your gadgets. Add a small text link in your gadgets that takes users your “add tab” page.
• Get a little help from your friends. Tell them about it and have them install it.

You basically can use any technique to promote this as you do any other webpage. What makes iGoogle tabs so neat is that they simplify the process a user must go through in order to use your gadgets.

Instead of having six different campaigns for six different gadgets, why not concentrate on just one for all of your gadgets? In many situations this is wise, and associates your gadgets with their search terms.

Google wants to provide suggestions to their users of other gadgets they might enjoy. The problem this may cause for you is that those “other” gadgets may just well be your competitors. Here is a way to keep Google from showing your competitors gadgets during promotion. Let’s look at one of the places that Google suggests other gadgets and see how to get around this problem.

1) Google gadget directory description:

In this example, the gadget description page for a Travelocity gadget is shown. On this page Google suggests other gadgets from Expedia, Kayak, etc. and therefore promotes Travelocity’s competitors.

To avoid this you can choose not to send people to the gadget description and instead use the “add to Google” option instead. If you do then you won’t be sending your customers to this page and they will therefore never see Googles suggested gadgets.

The “Add to Google” page shows only the gadget sceenshot and the description that you wrote of your gadget:

Here is the “add to Google” page for the Travelocity gadget, this page can be displayed for any gadget by adding the gadget xml file location to the end of a google url. Here is the url for the travelocity one:

“http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.labpixies.com/campaigns/travelocity/travelocity.xml”

Don’t let the length of the url scare you, just replace the location of your gadget.

If your gadget is at “http://www.example.com/gadget.xml” then the add to Google url would look like this:

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.example.com/gadget.xml

By sending your customers to the add to Google page for your gadget rather than you gadget description page, you can easily avoid promoting your competitors.

My next article will show you how to avoid doing this in another place within iGoogle, the canvas page.

What’s Popular? How about What’s Probable?

There are some notable things about how this gadget is made. First off, this gadget is a URL gadget, meaning it is using type=”url”. This is very interesting to me since Google has not really used this type of gadget for any of it’s official gadgets. This type of Google gadget simply displays content from a url, which means the content behind this gadget is at a live web page…

http://www.google.com/labs/popgadget/world

This means that the about url is searchable, indexable, etc. Here it is in the Google results:

This is a full swing, functioning website and will likely serve as the home page of this service at a later date. In other words, expect this service to be a web based feature of Google. This is not a gadget only project by any means.

This service will become popular itself among iGoogle users. In fact, if history serves as a guide, I can almost assure you that this gadget will become a default gadget on new iGoogle pages.

Virtually all competitors to Digg lack one common thing, distribution.

Guess what? By making this a default Google gadget on iGoogle this gadget (and therefore this service) will have around 8 million users almost overnight. iGoogle is a distribution monster.

I am willing to bet three things about Google What’s Popular

• It will be a web based service soon
• It will be a default Google gadget on iGoogle
• It will definiately be a contender to other voting sites, even Digg.

This is how Google distributed the Gmail gadget and the YouTube gadget, I see no reason why the same won’t be true of the “What’s Popular” service as well.

It explores the best practices of how to effectively describe and spread your Google gadgets via the underused method of complete ModulePrefs.

Guide to ModulePrefs

What are ModulePrefs?

ModulePrefs are the “metadata” of a Google gadget.

On a web page you define the title of that webpage using meta data, with Google gadgets however, the title is defined using ModulePrefs. You also define things like the height and width of your gadget with them, if you have a Google gadget, you already have a ModulePref section in the code of your gadget as it is required (prefs stands for preferences).

Why are ModulePrefs important?

Without the ModulePrefs code, your gadget wouldn’t be defined in anyway and probably wouldn’t even work.

What can be done with ModulePrefs that I am not already doing?

Here is the important part, most people (as in the vast majority) are under utilizing what can be done with ModulePrefs and are absolutely missing out on the many SEO benefits and, just as importantly, the directory benefits available to them. To display the different possibilities we will use this gadget as an example…

If you use all the ModulePrefs availible to you, then Google will create four different pages (in addition to your gadget itself) where information about your gadget can be found and linked to.

1) the iGoogle gadget directory description page, 2) the gadget add page, 3) the author page and 4) the gadget syndication directory description page.

What is found on these pages is defined by what ModulePrefs you use in your gadget. These four places are the places where most of the things defined by your ModulePrefs will be displayed. By knowing where and how your preferences are displayed you can strategically optimize your gadget to be used by people and you can use some basic SEO strategies as well.

The good news is you already are using Moduleprefs in your gadget. The section of a gadget that is called “ModulePrefs” is a required element of your code. The trick is to use all of the ModulePrefs available to you. You are likely only using the minimum, required prefs. Most Google gadgets have the common ones defined like “title”, “height”, etc.

ModulePrefs Defined

Moduleprefs are the part of the gadget code that lies between the <modulePrefs> and </ModulePrefs> tags. Let’s examine a common set from a Google gadget…

The above code represents a very common set of ModulePrefs – “title” “description” “screenshot” “thumbnail” and “height”. These are the minimal values you can set, their values are defined below.

title

title=”Ferret Virtual Pet”

This is self explanatory, the “title” field sets the title and is displayed within the Google gadget and also on the gadget description page. The title is important and should be accurate and descriptive of the gadget, but it is also important to consider what people are looking for when they search the directory. In this example I am using  “ferret virtual pet” for a title. By calling it this I am improving the odds that this gadget can be found not only to those searching for “ferret” and also those searching for “virtual pets”.

description

description=”A funny little ferret pet for you to play with. Feed it some eggs, and see what happens when you pet it (make sure to hold down your mouse button while you do so).”

The description is obviously a description of the the gadget. It is displayed in all four pages Google creates about your gadget and is also required to submit a gadget to the iGoogle gadget directory.

Descriptions should portray what your gadget is and why someone should use it.

height

height=”385″

This sets the height of the gadget and is not displayed anywhere but determines how your gadget will display. This value is defaulted to pixels.

screenshot

screenshot=http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/images/ferret.png”

The screenshot is a larger image of your gadget. Gadget screenshots should be 280 pixels wide. The height of the screenshot should be the “natural” height of the gadget when it’s in use and can be .gif or .jpeg, but .png is preferred. It should be about this same size as your gadget is. The screenshot image is displayed in three of the four pages Google creates about your gadget. The iGoogle description page, the gadget syndication directory page, and the add to Google page. It is not displayed on the author page.

thumbnail

thumbnail=”http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/images/ferret-tn.png”

The thumbnail image is displayed on the author page and in the iGoogle gadget directory results.

The thumbnail is a small image that previews your gadget pleasantly and descriptively. Gadget thumbnails should be 120×60 pixels and can be .gif or .jpeg, but .png is preferred.

Okay, we have defined the ModulePrefs that are commonly used. The ones defined above are already existing in most Google gadgets. Let’s get to the ones that are not used as often and discuss their usefulness for search and directory optimization…

title_url

title_url=”http://www.gadzi.com/animals/virtual-pets.html”

This ModulePref is one of the more important ones, particularly for spreading your gadgets. Using this ModulePref you can make your gadget title into a click-able link that points wherever you choose.

I can not stress enough that this is one of the most important ModulePrefs to use.

Using the “title_url” allows you to guide users of your gadget to another page. By planning out your gadgets well, this can create enormous traffic to your gadget page. The vitual pet gadgets I have all use this and link to a page where other virtual pet gadgets can be found. This page receives tens of thousands of visits a month, not through search engines, but from gadget traffic (people clicking the link in the gadget or the link in the title of the gadget).

This is particularly important if you or your business have multiple gadgets. Using “title_url” you can have your gadget link to your gadgets overview page and enjoy serious direct traffic. To learn more of this strategy, see my old post “3 Ways to get money and traffic from Google gadgets“.

Author related ModulePrefs:

The next few ones we will define are all author related. Simply put, these create a new Google page that displays information about the author of the gadget. The author page is very useful in many ways for both businesses and personal authors. See my example author page or let’s get to the ModulePrefs for authors…

author

author=”Gadzi”

In this example I used “Gadzi” which is the nickname I use for my example gadgets.

By properly utilizing the author and author related ModeulePrefs (more described below) I have an author page which lists and displays my example gadgets for this account. This author page carries pagerank and can be used as a very powerful SEO tool that allows your quality themed gadgets to rank better in the iGoogle gadget directory. You can use your name, a nickname, or if you have a business name I recommend using that for this field.

author_email

author_email=gadgets@gadzi.com

The author email is actually the field used to define your author page. This is an important one to keep universal across all your gadgets. If you use different author emails in different gadgets, you will have multiple author pages even if you keep the author name the same.

This also allows people to contact you about the gadget via your author page.

author_photo

author_photo=”http://example.com/images/profile.jpg”

The author_photo let’s you display an image on your author profile page. As can be said of any profile page, it is useful to have an image, whether it be a photo of you or your businesses logo.

The requirements of the author photo are a little bit geared towards photos because of the dimensions of the photo, which is basically a tall rectangle (see image on right). The image must be 70×100 , PNG format preferred, but JPG/GIF are also supported.

author_aboutme

author_aboutme=”My name is Patrick Sexton I am a consultant for gadget strategies for brand promotion. I discuss Google gadgets at SEOish.com”

The author_aboutme field defines the content for your author page. This can describe yourself  or your business. I keep mentioning businesses and the reason I do is because the author page is an excellent and useful business profile page that can link to your website.

The more author related ModulePrefs that you use the more content rich your author page can be. with the author_aboutme one, you can really create a meaty page. Resist the urge to just put a sentence and really describe yourself or your business. The more text that is used in this field, the more content rich your author page will be.

author_link

author_link=”http://www.seoish.com”

Yes!

You can link to your website from your author profile page. To do so include the author_link ModulePref .

This link does not pass much juice but it can result in much direct traffic, and if you are a business this link can bring in the users of your gadgets to the place you desire them to come. Consider making a page specifically designed for your Google gadget users.

author_location and author_quote

author_location=”Kauai, Hawaii”

author_quote=”Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. – Douglas Adams”

These are simply more details you can enter about where you are at and your favorite quote or tagline.

These are good to have if only to make the page more full and interesting.

There are even more ModulePrefs to use and more are coming out often with the new gadget documentation. Here are some of the places to look for more details:

Google gadget (legacy) ModulePrefs

Google gadget XML reference

Today there is a new feature where they have made the fact that a gadget has been added more clear to a user…

Now you will see a more distinct box, and a link to “other gadgets” you may be interested in….

This small change is rather significant, and definately useful because the old system you culdn’t even tell if gadget had been added unless you were really watching.

Unfortunately it does not really resolve the problem of getting back to the iGoogle home page where the gadget that was just installed actually resides.

I think it would be really useful if they added a second link in that box that said “Back to your homepage” or “see your gadget”. Something that told users how to see their gadget that they just installed.

You can watch and post videos of why you love iGoogle and gadgets here.

You can also write stories if you don’t have a webcam. The featured stories link to the gadgets mentioned

After you submit a story Google says thank you with a free set of laptop stickers…

Hi, I am Pat.

I would say that I am in love with Virginia Nussey, but due to recent stalking laws I am required to say “I believe Virginia Nussey is a very nice person”

Virginia was a delight to meet both in person, and through her writing. I have since seen Virginia a bunch of times, and it always is a pleasure.

Virginia Nussey

Virginia writes for the Bruce Clay blog and loves tortoises. She is also an extremely talented writer and blogger.

Recently Virginia wrote an article named “True Confessions of a Boring Blogger” which was a personal and heart felt post. I know Virginia but even if I didn’t know her, I would have melted. Since I know her a bit, I actually moaned, fell over,  melted, and decided to write her this.

In her post, Virginia boldly takes responsibility for the drooping numbers and comment levels of the blog. She honestly and openly discussed her role of taking over the blog from the popular blogger Lisa Barone and the difficulties involved with doing so.

I have some important information for you Virginia.

You are the perfect writer for the job and the blog that you so wonderfully write for has a few problems of it’s own. There are some correctable and easy to implement solutions here.

The goal of this post is to highlight some things that I feel can greatly improve the Bruce Clay blog I will be blunt and will try to keep it funny, but I am going to be blunt.

I have had these thoughts about the Bruce Clay blog for a long time. For those who don’t know, I respect Bruce Clay and everyone involved with that blog very much and love to see them always. These are lovingly given suggestions…

1) The Sideways Barcode Problem

If you took a barcode…

And then turned it sideways…

You would have the visual of the Bruce Clay blog…

Solely on a visual front, this offends the eyes, makes yawns more possible, and leaves one seeking for links to click or back buttons to press.

2) Pleasure People Visually

Insert photos and images as much as possible.

Yes that is Virginia in knee socks, she has been nice enough to throw on a few pair of knee socks.

A post with images is more visually alluring than a post without.

The image can be a chart, or a screenshot, or Virginia in knee socks.

But whatever that image is, it visually breaks up those amazing words writen.

They make the pleasure of reading even more pleasurable.

Breaking up the lines and lines of text improve said text, no matter how wonderful that text is.

To solve the sideways barcode problem takes only a few moments.

Just post some images. I promise that this will make your blog more interesting and pleasurable. I am an adorer of their Friday recaps but I wish they had images in them.

3) You Don’t Need a Ring to be Engaged

The most frustrating problem I have had with the Bruce Clay blog is the inability to have real time conversations. Or even near real world conversations.

I honestly believe this is the biggest culprit killing engagement on their blog.

The Bruce Clay blog is not a place that people go to talk to each other or even to respond to each others comments. I have tried to respond to other peoples comments there, and when I do it is rare that the coment even gets posted in time to respond. I have made comments there that have not been posted for over 12 hours!

How am I going to be engaged by that? I am not. It enrages me and makes me want to slap someone with a fish.

After you leave a comment, you get to what I call “The grey screen of death” …

Why take me to a screen that tells me I commented? I already know I commented. Oh great there is a link back to the original entry, so I can get back. But why would I go back? My comment won’t be there. The link that says “Return to the original entry” might as well say “Take me to a less frustrating and complicated blog”.

4) Comment Settings

Set your comments to be auto approved. If not just to improve the above frustrating process, to have the ability for people to respond to each other in the comments.

Every other blog I engage with has something the the Bruce Clay blog does not: When I see a comment on any other blog that I have a response to, or I feel I can add to, I post a comment. I do not do this on the Bruce Clay blog because I don’t think it will get posted in a timely way.

To be clear about this, the comment system at the Bruce Clay blog is a fail. Change it. You will have more engaged users if you do.

5) Can I Haz Navigation?

To write this post I wanted to give some example of older posts I have commented on, but couldn’t because…

I could not find them.

Let’s go to the bottom of the home page of the blog, you know, the place where you can go to see “older entries” or “previous entries”?

Hmm.

The Bruce Clay blog says “no” to navigation. Here is the bottom of their blog home page, where amazingly, there is no way to see previous posts…

The Bruce Clay blog is extraordinarily difficult to navigate. If you can’t overhaul the whole thing then I would at least suggest a link to previous posts or some form of navigation at the bottom.

6) Sidebars Should Not Create Headaches

I think your sidebar needs some visual healing. The good news is that you have several ways for people to use social media and feeds. That is great, but could we make the chicklets and links more unified?

You are a marketing company, not a GeoCities page. Get a designer to create you some universal buttons for that sidebar.

And on the subscribe options… It is great that you have so many options to subscribe ( full, partial, XML, Atom) but the problem is you have no way to just plain ole’ subscribe.

I suggest one of those bright orange, universally recognized thingies.

Your advanced users will appreciate the subscribe options, but your regular users just want to hit a orange icon and subscribe to your blog.

I was honestly confused when I wanted to subscribe to this blog. I felt like I was getting tested or something. It made me scratch my head and wonder which option to use.

</constructive criticism>

Virginia Nussey and Susan Esparza are some of the greatest writers around. I believe that with a simple meeting, and about a days work, the platform upon which they write on could be drastically improved.

In any case however, the Bruce Clay blog is a great blog that should definately be on your reading list.

“Why should I encourage people to use the functionality of my web site without actually visiting my website?”

This question makes sense if someone for example is monetizing their site via adsense. If they display their content elsewhere like iGoogle or Facebook they “lose” the money making part of their website.

The real questions that people should probably be thinking is “Why isn’t my content working for me where ever it is displayed?”

If your goal is branding for example, you can immediately jump into the gadget world and achieve your goals. If your goal is helping your customers then you can jump immediately into gadgets.

To make something available via gadgets, you should ensure that your portable content is accomplishing your goals. If you are not receiving value from your content when it is portable, you may want to start designing content that will.

To illustrate this, let’s look at the Getlisted Google gadget…

This gadget uses the canvas view of iGoogle to display all the information availible about your business, as though you were at the website itself. The entire functionality is there, including the ability to sign in and use your own personal dashboard.

Since the entire functionality is availible via this gadget, there may seem to be no reason whatsoever for a user to ever even visit the GetListed.org web site.

I am okay with that.

GetListed was designed as an absolutely portable being. Wherever and however this content is displayed is fine with me. If a user is using it on Facebook, iGoogle or other widget platforms, it still does it’s job and still provides value to the users and also provides value to to me, it’s creator.

In fact, the way your content is displayed is becoming less up to you and more up to what users want.

The GetListed functionality can be placed on any website by just using an iframe for example.

Here is the same functionality on another website via an iframe at feedthebot.com…

Content portability is fast becoming a web reality.

Is your content ready?

Getlisted Google gadget code is here

Iframe example on Feedthebot is here

Related post to portability is here

Google Gadget Promotion 101

Let’s get right to a couple of obvious things first so that we don’t waste any time…

Usefulness:

If your Google gadget is not useful to anyone, it will not do well no matter how well you promote it. It is better to begin again with a new useful gadget than to promote one that is not useful to anyone. What makes a Google gadget useful? It must somehow pleasure someone. It must make them laugh, make their day easier, provide information that is not available elsewhere, entertain them, or be fun to interact with. Ask anyone other than you to try it and tell you what they think. A useful gadget is amazingly easy to promote. The first step in Google gadget promotion is to determine honestly if your gadget is worth promoting.

Is it useful?

If yes start promoting.

If not, start over, make a new gadget. Promoting your gadget won’t help.

Know your audience:

The audience of a Google gadget is in large part iGoogle users. iGoogle is a personalized homepage. This means that only the owner of that page can see your gadget. I want to say that again. Only the owner of the iGoogle page can see that iGoogle page. It is not a public profile that others can see. Think about that when designing and creating your gadget. A great example of this would be the use of viral installers (those little buttons under gadgets that say “get this widget”).

If there is only one person at a time seeing your gadget, then there is no reason to have a “get this widget” button because they already have it.

These buttons or viral installers are not appropriate for Google gadgets the vast majority of time. It is not useful and it takes up space. Space is what you have the least of in your widget so use it wisely to be useful and pleasant to the users of the widget.

Does your Google gadget have a viral installer?

If yes, get rid of it and make a iGoogle gadget specific version of your widget that does not include the “get this widget” button.

If no, continue.

Simplicity:

The Google gadgets that are the most popular are also the Google gadgets that are the most simple. Bells and whistles are not often appropriate for a Google gadget. They can have bells and whistles by visiting your site if they want. Gadget users want the basic  functionality of your website on their homepage, they do not want your website on their homepage. A simple search box is virtually always more universally used than a fancier type of gadget. There are millions of users of the Wikipedia search gadget. This gadget is just a searchbox that redirects to Wikipedia… Notice the lack of any dancing elves or branding overkill? You should also notice that it is small and simple. The overall reason this widget is used by millions is that is provides a simple and useful interface to information that is used by alot of people. It doesn’t need flashy design elements. It does it’s job. It is useful.

Okay, let’s get to the promotion guide…

Google Gadget Promotion

The most important part of gadget promotion is usefulness and functionality, but what is the next important thing?

Representation in the Google gadget directory:

The way that most users find gadgets is the Google gadget directory. The single largest mistake that I have seen people make is to not submit their gadget to the directory. If you are not in the Google gadget directory, users will not find you there. To be more clear, if you are not in the Google gadget directory then your gadget is not represented in the single most used place that users find gadgets. There is a hundred million or so users using the Google gadget directory. I can name dozens of Fortune 1000 companies who do not understand this. If somebody goes to the Google gadget directory and searches for your exact brand name they will not find you unless you have submitted your gadget to the directory. The reason so many people (and particularly large brands) are not represented in the Google gadget directory is because they trust their widget spread to media companies who use viral installers.

It is important to know that just because a user has the capacity to install your gadget on iGoogle does not mean that your gadget is represented in the Google gadget directory.

Search for your gadget or your brand name in the Google gadget directory

If it is there continue.

If it is not there, submit it to the directory

Presentation:

How your gadget or widget is presented to people is the number one factor in if they will even try it out. Let’s look in detail at what presentation options we have on the Google gadget platform.

Description: What you say about your gadget in your description is very important and should be concise and describe the gadget and it’s usefulness quickly and simply. But people won’t even read or bother to see your description unless they like the…

Thumbnail: Each Google gadget has a thumbnail. This is a small image that represents your gadget. This is one of the most important pieces of promotion you have. It has to get a point across and it has to stand out from the other thumbnails users are presented with. The first step to having an effective thumbnail is to actually have a thumbnail. Tens of thousands of gadget do not even have a thumbnail image! When a gadget does not have a thumbnail then Google displays a default thumbnail (image on left). If your gadget is based on a feed then it also shows a default image (shown on right). If there is no distinction between you and other gadgets, there is a less likelihood that a user will even click to your gadget description page. To illustrate this point, let’s search for “SEO” in the Google gadget directory… Of the first 5 results, only one has a thumbnail. See how the others just sort of blend together and seem sorta “blah”? When someone searches for anything in the Google gadget directory the only visual indication they will get of your gadget is the thumbnail.

They have to click again before they see the other visual indication of your gadget (the screen shot which will will speak of in a moment). This means that the first visual indication of your gadget a user receives is the thumbnail image. The thumbnail is important.

To have a thumbnail in your gadget requires only one line of code… thumbnail=”urlofyourimage”

The specs of what a thumbnail should be are provided by Google as…

Thumbnails are used in the content directory to give users a preview of a gadget. They should capture the main functionality of your gadget without showing it in its entirety. The value for this attribute is a string that gives the URL for a gadget thumbnail. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Thumbnails should be 120×60 pixels. They should not include title bars.

Does your gadget have a thumbnail?

If yes continue

If no, add a thumbnail. The directions of how to do so are provided by Google here.If that page seems confusing, you may want to start with my Google gadget tutorial.

Screen Shot: The screen shot of a Google gadget is displayed to a potential user when they are asked if they want to install a gadget and it is also displayed in the Google gadget directory description page for that gadget. The screenshot should show visually what the gadget will look like on the users homepage. Here is what Google says about the screenshot in their documentation….

This is a string that gives the URL for a gadget screenshot. This must be a well-formed URL, not a relative URL. This image must be on a public web site that is not blocked by robots.txt. PNG is the preferred format, though GIF and JPG are also acceptable. Gadget screenshots should be 280 pixels wide. The height of the screenshot should be the “natural” height of the gadget when it’s in use. This helps users understand how much space a gadget will consume on their screen before they add it to their page. The screenshot should not have any whitespace above the gadget’s blue header bar. Screenshots should show your full gadget, including its title bar, but nothing else. Alternatively, you can screenshot the gadget with the edit window open. Screenshots should not be resized or cropped. For quality and consistency, Google may take its own screenshots of a given gadget.

Let’s take a look at a screenshot on a Google gadget description page…

This is a Google gadget from Google itself. The image is the screenshot image. It shows a potential user what the gadget will look like on their homepage. It is always worth looking at official Google gadgets to see what they are doing. They are well aware of what works and what does not. Often by just looking at how a gadget built by Google is listed can tell you alot.

Does your gadget have a screenshot?

If yes, continue

If no, add a screenshot that follow the guidelines I quoted above.

Other directories that list Google gadgets:

Your gadget should be in as many directories as possible. Here is a list of places to submit your Google gadget.

Display your gadget on your website

The best way to introduce your gadget to the world is through your own website, or through already existing interactions between yourself and your customers or users. There are different ways to accomplish this.

One way is to simply have a page dedicated to different ways that a user can interact with your website.
A great example of this is the website Sphinn, where they have a specific page that highlights different ways users can interact with their site. It is important not only to have page like this, but to make that page prominent. Sphinn accomplishes this by listing this page in their top navigation.

This is smart for a couple of reasons, one so that people can find it, and two, because gadgets, like webpages are listed in relevance in the Google gadget directory. The same algorithm that also ranks gadgets (I will speak more on this later).

Another way is to use existing  interactions between your website and your users to promote your gadget.

An example of this would be a commerce website that takes payments. If you take payments, then you also give receipts. Consider mentioning your gadget on your receipts or “thank you for your purchase” page. Even better, give them a reason to use it. Consider saying something like “save 20 percent on items bought through our Google gadget”.

Yet another way to use your website is to actually display information through a Google gadget. Look at your sidebar, what are you showing?  Using Sphinn.com as an example again, they are displaying the “Top 10 most Sphunn in What’s New” which is an ever changing list of what stories have been voted on the most that are not yet promoted to the front page. That information could be shown in a gadget that people can grab.

The popular news site Digg is a great example of how to do this. They have the very same type of scenario. The have information to show their users in a sidebar. They are showing that information inside a widget.

This tactic is very successful.

Is your gadget mentioned on your website?

If yes continue

If no, put it on your website.

The best place to get information about Google is Google itself, here is what they have to say about promoting your gadget.

Here is another Google page about what users like to see in their gadgets.