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	<title>Google Gadgets &#38; SEO &#187; widgets</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.seoish.com/seo/widgets/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.seoish.com</link>
	<description>Widget strategy, Google Gadgets, iGoogle, and the shifting sands of SEO.</description>
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		<title>Innovative Customer Support Widget Solution</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/innovative-customer-support-widget-solution/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/innovative-customer-support-widget-solution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webdev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=2469</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was recently contacted by a fellow Google gadget developer and he mentioned his new venture called Snapabug.com and asked me to take a look. I did, and I am pretty impressed. It is a widget solution that streamlines a website/company support process. Imagine someone is having a problem with your website and contacts your [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2470" title="snapabug_tagline" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/snapabug_tagline.png" alt="snapabug_tagline" width="240" height="66" />I was recently contacted by a fellow Google gadget developer and he mentioned his new venture called <a href="http://www.snapabug.com/">Snapabug.com</a> and asked me to take a look.</p>
<p><strong>I did, and I am pretty impressed.<br />
</strong></p>
<p>It is a widget solution that streamlines a website/company support process.<br />
Imagine someone is having a problem with your website and contacts your support team. Much of the required information necessary to resolve the problem is technical in nature.<br />
<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2475" style="margin: 7px;" title="plugins_border" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/plugins_border.jpg" alt="plugins_border" width="312" height="112" />What browser are you using? What version of Flash? What are you seeing?<br />
Many normal web users simply won&#8217;t know this info and to resolve the issue is a whole bunch of back and forth communication.</p>
<div style="margin: 5px; float: right;">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-9611596420113268";
/* 300x250, created 12/19/09 */
google_ad_slot = "7781701648";
google_ad_width = 300;
google_ad_height = 250;
//-->
</script><br />
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</div>
<p>Snapabug actually <em><strong>takes a screen shot of the users computer and reports the technical details of their computer</strong></em> automatically and integrates this info with your existing support system.</p>
<p>Visitors only need to enter their email address, a quick description of their problem and click &#8220;send&#8221;.</p>
<p>SnapABug collects all the information you need: email, description, operating system, browser, language, location, etc. Plus it takes a snapshot of the users screen.</p>
<p>Your support team and your customer can chat through this widget solution as well. A very impressive solution and great idea.</p>
<p>Explained in video below:<br />
<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RfAtjmWnLBw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RfAtjmWnLBw&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>I can see many situations where this solution would be very useful. It looks very easy to implement as well.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Avoid Promoting your Competitors Gadgets on iGoogle</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-avoid-promoting-your-competitors-gadgets-on-igoogle/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-avoid-promoting-your-competitors-gadgets-on-igoogle/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 May 2009 19:01:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to make Google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iGoogle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1820</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When you promote your Google gadget, you may also be unintentionally promoting your competitors gadgets as well. Google wants to provide suggestions to their users of other gadgets they might enjoy. The problem this may cause for you is that those &#8220;other&#8221; gadgets may just well be your competitors. Here is a way to keep [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1826" style="margin: 5px;" title="blackboard" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/blackboard.png" alt="blackboard" width="128" height="128" />When you promote your Google gadget, you may also be unintentionally promoting your competitors gadgets as well.</p>
<p>Google wants to provide suggestions to their users of other gadgets they might enjoy. The problem this may cause for you is that those &#8220;other&#8221; gadgets may just well be your competitors. Here is a way to keep Google from showing your competitors gadgets during promotion. Let&#8217;s look at one of the places that Google suggests other gadgets and see how to get around this problem.</p>
<p><strong>1) Google gadget directory description:</strong><br />
<img class="size-medium wp-image-1821 alignright" style="margin: 5px;" title="competitors" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/competitors-300x133.jpg" alt="competitors" width="300" height="133" /></p>
<p>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&#8217;s competitors.</p>
<p>To avoid this you can choose not to send people to the gadget description and instead use the &#8220;add to Google&#8221; option instead. If you do then you won&#8217;t be sending your customers to this page and they will therefore never see Googles suggested gadgets.</p>
<p>The &#8220;Add to Google&#8221; page shows only the gadget sceenshot and the description that you wrote of your gadget:<img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1823" style="margin: 5px;" title="addgoogle" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/addgoogle-300x170.jpg" alt="addgoogle" width="300" height="170" /></p>
<p>Here is the &#8220;add to Google&#8221; 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:</p>
<p>&#8220;http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.labpixies.com/campaigns/travelocity/travelocity.xml&#8221;</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t let the length of the url scare you, just replace the location of your gadget.</p>
<p>If your gadget is at &#8220;http://www.example.com/gadget.xml&#8221; then the add to Google url would look like this:</p>
<p>http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.example.com/gadget.xml</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>My next article will show you how to avoid doing this in another place within iGoogle, the canvas page.</p>
<p><strong><br />
</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Hulu Adds Video Widgets</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/hulu-video-widget/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/hulu-video-widget/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2009 05:15:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1771</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hulu Has begun integrating show specific widgets into their navigation. The Hulu video widget is quite nice and well made, though there were a couple of hiccups when it first came out. Each show description page now has a Widget tab, as shown below on the Daily show Hulu page: Hulu is offering two types [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://www.hulu.com">Hulu</a> Has begun integrating show specific widgets into their navigation. The Hulu video widget is quite nice and well made, though there were a couple of hiccups when it first came out. Each show description page now has a Widget tab, as shown below on the <a href="http://www.hulu.com/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart">Daily show Hulu page</a>:</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1788 alignnone" title="hulu-video-widget-tab" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hulu-video-widget-tab.jpg" alt="hulu-video-widget-tab" width="448" height="226" /></p>
<p>Hulu is offering two types of widgets, one that plays the video locally and the other is just a display of the latest thumbnails of videos available that then link to the the Hulu page hosting it. Here is a widget for the Daily show:</p>
<p><object width="392" height="210"><param name="movie" value="http://www.hulu.com/widget/embed/videopanel"></param><param name="bgcolor" value="0x000000" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="flashVars" value="partner=CSWidget&#038;layout=Horizontal2Thumbs&#038;watchOnHulu=true&#038;searchEnabled=true&#038;sortEnabled=true&#038;sortDefault=recentlyaddedfull&#038;show=the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart"></param><embed src="http://www.hulu.com/widget/embed/videopanel" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashVars="partner=CSWidget&#038;layout=Horizontal2Thumbs&#038;watchOnHulu=true&#038;searchEnabled=true&#038;sortEnabled=true&#038;sortDefault=recentlyaddedfull&#038;show=the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="0x000000" width="392" height="210"></embed></object></p>
<p>The widget can be displayed horizontal or vertical, and has many choices of how to display thumbnails, for example you can choose latest clips, or most popular clips. You can even have it just display the latest full episodes. The widget can display 1 to 4 different thumbnails. To choose these settings just follow the instructions under the widget tab of each show.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>WidgetBox to Require Ad Compliance</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/widgetbox-to-require-ad-compliance/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/widgetbox-to-require-ad-compliance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 14 May 2009 23:41:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[affiliate widgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1759</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Widgetbox has an enormous gallery of user made widgets. There are around 150,000 different widgets and they are about to achieve a benchmark in their widget distribution: 10 billion widgets served over 3 and a half million different domains. Your widget will be removed from this gallery soon if it is not &#8220;ad compliant&#8221;. Part [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><a href="http://www.widgetbox.com"></a></p>
<p><img class="alignright" style="margin: 7px 3px;" title="widgetbox" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/widgetbox.jpg" alt="widgetbox" width="206" height="45" /></p>
<p>Widgetbox has an enormous <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com/galleryhome/">gallery of user made widgets</a>. There are around 150,000 different widgets and they are about to achieve a benchmark in their widget distribution: 10 billion widgets served over 3 and a half million different domains.</p>
<p>Your widget will be removed from this gallery soon if it is not &#8220;ad compliant&#8221;.</p>
<p>Part of the reason that Widgetbox has succeeded where others have not is their relationship with other platforms.</p>
<p>Displaying widgets can be tricky however when dealing with different platforms and providers and one the biggest issues is where and how ads are displayed within the widget. Different platforms have different rules for this.</p>
<p>Widgetbox has solved this problem well by their new requirement for widgets to be &#8220;ad compliant&#8221;. Basically, Widgetbox needs the ability to turn off ads when widgets are displayed in certain environments.</p>
<p>This does not mean that they are saying no to ads, it just means that ads must be coded in a certain way.</p>
<p>Below is the text of an email Widgetbox is sending to developers:</p>
<blockquote><p>Widgetbox Developer,</p>
<p>We&#8217;re writing to inform you that action may be required to keep your widget listed in the Widgetbox gallery. We are enforcing our policy of &#8216;Ad-compliance&#8217;. This is to prevent Widgetbox Pro users from seeing ads in widgets. You can find detailed information on how to implement any required changes here:</p>
<p>http://docs.widgetbox.com/2009/05/making-your-widget-ad-compliant/</p>
<p>Starting Monday, May 18, 2009, we will be reviewing the gallery for any widgets displaying ads. These widgets will be delisted until the widget is Ad-compliant. Moving forward, only Ad-compliant widgets will be approved for gallery listing. Additionally, Widgetbox Pro users have a mechanism to inform Widgetbox of ads in widgets.</p>
<p>When a user reports a violation of Ad-compliance, Widgetbox will review your content and your widget will be delisted with a clear message regarding Ad-compliance. When you&#8217;ve made the required changes, you can resubmit for gallery approval.</p>
<p>You can feel free to contact us regarding the implementation of Ad-compliancy here:</p>
<p>http://getsatisfaction.com/widgetbox/</p>
<p>Thanks for your continued support of Widgetbox,</p>
<p>Widgetbox Team&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The URL mentioned in this email is a guide to make your widgets ad compliant, and seems to be a very good guide.</p>
<p>Learn how to make your <a href="http://docs.widgetbox.com/2009/05/making-your-widget-ad-compliant/">widgets ad compliant here</a> because if you don&#8217;t, you will be booted from their directory.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Google Webmaster Help Video Gadget</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/google-webmaster-help-video-gadget/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/google-webmaster-help-video-gadget/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:37:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google guidelines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1555</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Here is a gadget that displays the latest videos from Matt Cutts and the Google Webmaster Help team. Whenever they put new videos up they will be displayed automatically in gadget. This pulls the latest videos from The Google webmaster help YouTube channel which can be found here. (if you can&#8217;t see gadget in feed [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Here is a gadget that displays the latest videos from Matt Cutts and the Google Webmaster Help team. Whenever they put new videos up they will be displayed automatically in gadget.</p>
<p><script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104462838893004134091/google-webmaster-help.xml&amp;up_channel=GoogleWebmasterHelp&amp;up_channel_title=GoogleWebmasterHelp&amp;synd=open&amp;w=330&amp;h=330&amp;title=Google+Webmaster+Help&amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&amp;output=js"></script></p>
<p>This pulls the latest videos from The Google webmaster help YouTube channel which <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?source=uds&amp;format=5&amp;user=GoogleWebmasterHelp">can be found here</a>. (if you can&#8217;t see gadget in feed <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104462838893004134091/google-webmaster-help.xml">then see it here</a>.)</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Google Gadget Canvas / Portability Strategy</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/google-gadget-canvas-strategy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/google-gadget-canvas-strategy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:21:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Facebook Applications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to make Google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iGoogle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Open Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[search community]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One common question among businesses considering Google gadgets or other widgets is basically this&#8230; &#8220;Why should I encourage people to use the functionality of my web site without actually visiting my website?&#8221; This question makes sense if someone for example is monetizing their site via adsense. If they display their content elsewhere like iGoogle or [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>One common question among businesses considering Google gadgets or other widgets is basically this&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>&#8220;Why should I encourage people to use the functionality of my web site without actually visiting my website?&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>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 &#8220;lose&#8221; the money making part of their website.</p>
<p>The real questions that people should probably be thinking is &#8220;Why isn&#8217;t my content working for me where ever it is displayed?&#8221;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>To illustrate this, let&#8217;s look at the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&amp;url=getlisted.org%2Ffb%2Fgetlisted.xml">Getlisted Google gadget</a>&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1328 alignright" style="margin: 7px;" title="getliste-gg" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/getliste-gg.jpg" alt="getliste-gg" width="262" height="225" /></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1331" style="margin: 7px;" title="getlisted-gg-1" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/getlisted-gg-1.jpg" alt="getlisted-gg-1" width="448" height="330" />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.</p>
<p><strong>I am okay with that.</strong></p>
<p>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&#8217;s job and still provides value to the users and also provides value to to me, it&#8217;s creator.</p>
<p>In fact, the way your content is displayed is becoming less up to you and more up to what users want.</p>
<p>The GetListed functionality can be placed on any website by just using an iframe for example.</p>
<p>Here is the same functionality on another website via an iframe at feedthebot.com&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1335" style="margin: 7px;" title="feedthebot-getlisted" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/feedthebot-getlisted.jpg" alt="feedthebot-getlisted" width="430" height="336" /> Content portability is fast becoming a web reality.</p>
<p>Is your content ready?</p>
<p>Getlisted Google gadget code <a href="http://getlisted.org/fb/getlisted.xml">is here</a></p>
<p>Iframe example on Feedthebot <a href="http://www.feedthebot.com/local.html">is here</a></p>
<p>Related post to portability <a href="http://www.seoish.com/the-incredible-embeddable-web/">is here</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How to Promote Google Gadgets</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-promote-google-gadgets/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-promote-google-gadgets/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Dec 2008 19:16:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to make Google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iGoogle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webdev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1128</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This post will describe the best practices of how to promote a Google gadget, but most of the things I mention are equally useful for any kind of widget promotion. Google Gadget Promotion 101 Let&#8217;s get right to a couple of obvious things first so that we don&#8217;t waste any time&#8230; Usefulness: If your Google [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><!-- wp_ad_camp_1 --><br />
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1130" style="margin: 7px;" title="teacher" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/teacher.png" alt="teacher" width="128" height="128" /><em>This post will describe the best practices of how to promote a Google gadget, but most of the things I mention are equally useful for any kind of widget promotion.</em></p>
<h2>Google Gadget Promotion 101</h2>
<p>Let&#8217;s get right to a couple of obvious things first so that we don&#8217;t waste any time&#8230;</p>
<h3>Usefulness:</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Is it useful?</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1133" style="margin: 0px 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If yes start promoting.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If not, start over, make a new gadget. Promoting your gadget won&#8217;t help.</p>
<h3>Know your audience:</h3>
<p>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 &#8220;get this widget&#8221;).  <em><strong></strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>If there is only one person at a time seeing your gadget, then there is no reason to have a &#8220;get this widget&#8221; button</strong></em><strong><em> because they already have it. </em></strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Does your Google gadget have a viral installer?</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1133" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If yes, get rid of it and make a iGoogle gadget specific version of your widget that does not include the &#8220;get this widget&#8221; button.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" />If no, continue.</p>
<h3>Simplicity:</h3>
<p>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  <strong><em>functionality</em></strong> 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.  <img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1137" style="margin: 7px;" title="wikigadget" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/wikigadget.jpg" alt="wikigadget" width="371" height="86" />There are millions of users of the Wikipedia search gadget. This gadget is just a searchbox that redirects to Wikipedia&#8230;  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&#8217;t need flashy design elements. It does it&#8217;s job. It is useful.</p>
<p>Okay, let&#8217;s get to the promotion guide&#8230;</p>
<h2><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1152" style="margin: 5px;" title="about" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/about.png" alt="about" width="128" height="128" />Google Gadget Promotion</h2>
<p>The most important part of gadget promotion is usefulness and functionality, but what is the next important thing?</p>
<h3>Representation in the Google gadget directory:</h3>
<p>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.  <strong><em></em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>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.</em></strong></p>
<p>Search for your gadget or your brand name in the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory">Google gadget directory</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory"></a> <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1133" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If it is there continue.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If it is not there, <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/submit">submit it to the directory</a></p>
<h3>Presentation:</h3>
<p>How your gadget or widget is presented to people is the number one factor in if they will even try it out. Let&#8217;s look in detail at what presentation options we have on the Google gadget platform.</p>
<p><strong><em>Description: </em></strong> What you say about your gadget in your description is very important and should be concise and describe the gadget and it&#8217;s usefulness quickly and simply. But people won&#8217;t even read or bother to see your description unless they like the&#8230;  <em><strong></strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Thumbnail:</strong></em> 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.  <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1141" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 7px;" title="no_image_gadget_thm" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/no_image_gadget_thm.png" alt="no_image_gadget_thm" width="120" height="60" />The first step to having an effective thumbnail is to actually have a thumbnail. Tens of thousands<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1142" style="border: 1px solid black; margin: 7px;" title="rss" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/rss.gif" alt="rss" width="120" height="60" /> 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&#8217;s search for &#8220;SEO&#8221; in the Google gadget directory&#8230;  <img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1147" style="margin: 5px;" title="seo-results" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/seo-results.jpg" alt="seo-results" width="263" height="254" />Of the first 5 results, only one has a thumbnail.  See how the others just sort of blend together and seem sorta &#8220;blah&#8221;?  When someone searches for anything in the Google gadget directory the only visual indication they will get of your gadget is the thumbnail.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>To have a thumbnail in your gadget requires only one line of code&#8230;  thumbnail=&#8221;urlofyourimage&#8221;</p>
<p>The specs of what a thumbnail should be are provided by Google as&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>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&#215;60 pixels. They should not include title bars.</p></blockquote>
<p>Does your gadget have a thumbnail?</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1133" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" /></p>
<p>If yes continue</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" />If no, add a thumbnail. The directions of how to do so are <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/reference.html">provided by Google here</a>.If that page seems confusing, you may want to start with my <a href="http://www.seoish.com/how-to-make-google-gadgets/">Google gadget tutorial</a>.  <em><strong></strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Screen Shot:</strong></em> 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&#8230;.</p>
<blockquote><p>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 &#8220;natural&#8221; height of the gadget when it&#8217;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&#8217;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.</p></blockquote>
<p>Let&#8217;s take a look at a screenshot on a Google gadget description page&#8230;<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1159" style="margin: 5px;" title="screenshot-example" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/screenshot-example.jpg" alt="screenshot-example" width="327" height="189" /></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Does your gadget have a screenshot?</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1133 alignleft" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" />If yes, continue</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" />If no, add a screenshot that follow the guidelines I quoted above.</p>
<h3>Other directories that list Google gadgets:</h3>
<p>Your gadget should be in as many directories as possible. Here is a <a href="http://www.seoish.com/google-gadget-submit-guide/">list of places to submit your Google gadget</a>.</p>
<h3>Display your gadget on your website</h3>
<p>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.</p>
<p>One way is to simply have a page dedicated to different ways that a user can interact with your website.<img class="size-full wp-image-1168 alignright" style="margin: 5px;" title="sphinn-example" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sphinn-example.jpg" alt="sphinn-example" width="300" height="279" /><br />
A great example of this is the website <a href="http://www.sphinn.com">Sphinn</a>, where they have a specific page that <a href="http://sphinn.com/tools.php">highlights different ways users can interact with their site</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>Another way is to use existing  interactions between your website and your users to promote your gadget.</p>
<p>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 &#8220;thank you for your purchase&#8221; page. Even better, give them a reason to use it. Consider saying something like &#8220;save 20 percent on items bought through our Google gadget&#8221;.</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1170" style="margin: 5px;" title="digg-example" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/digg-example.jpg" alt="digg-example" width="235" height="394" />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 &#8220;Top 10 most Sphunn in What&#8217;s New&#8221; 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>This tactic is very successful.</p>
<p>Is your gadget mentioned on your website?</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1133" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="check" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/check.png" alt="check" width="24" height="24" />If yes continue</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1134" style="margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px;" title="delete2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/delete2.png" alt="delete2" width="24" height="24" />If no, put it on your website.</p>
<p>The best place to get information about Google is Google itself, here is what <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/about/promote.html">they have to say about promoting your gadget</a>.</p>
<p>Here is another Google page about what <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/guidelines.html#like">users like to see in their gadgets</a>.</p>
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		<title>Four Ways to Turn Your Feed Into a Widget</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/four-ways-to-turn-your-feed-into-a-widget/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/four-ways-to-turn-your-feed-into-a-widget/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:05:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to make Google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webdev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1054</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[1.) Widgetbox Widgetbox has offered for over a year something called &#8220;blidgets&#8221;. These are widgets that take a feed and, well, turn them into a widget. It takes only a couple of minutes to do it. In fact, you don&#8217;t even need to tell it your feed address, just your blog address. You just go [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><h2><strong>1.) Widgetbox</strong></h2>
<p>Widgetbox has offered for over a year something called &#8220;blidgets&#8221;. These are widgets that take a feed and, well, turn them into a widget. It takes only a couple of minutes to do it. In fact, you don&#8217;t even need to tell it your feed address, just your blog address.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1070" title="blidgetwelcome" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/blidgetwelcome.jpg" alt="blidgetwelcome" width="448" height="225" /></p>
<p>You just go to their feed widget page (shown above) and enter the url of your blog. After you hit the continue button, you will be presented with your new widget (pretty tough huh?) and you will be able to customize it.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1071" title="blidget2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/blidget2.jpg" alt="blidget2" width="448" height="281" /></p>
<p>Customize it then save it (you will have to make an account, which is simple and painless). Widgetbox has an extremely strong domain SEO value. Your description page for your blidget on Widgetbox will likely rank in the top 10 or 20 for whatever your blog name is within a couple of days.</p>
<h2><strong>2) Google Gadget</strong></h2>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1081" title="ggseoish" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/ggseoish.jpg" alt="ggseoish" width="375" height="144" /></p>
<p>To make your feed into a Google gadget is also simple and easy to do. I once explained this <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/how-to-turn-your-feed-into-a-google-gadget-2482">over at SEOmoz</a> but this time I will add a couple of details and suggestions. The steps are&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1074" style="margin: 7px 8px;" title="gg1" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/gg1.jpg" alt="gg1" width="160" height="448" /></p>
<p>1) Go to the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory">Google gadget directory</a></p>
<p>On the bottom of the left hand navigation there is a link that says &#8220;Add feed or gadget&#8221; Click that.</p>
<p>2) Enter your feed URL and click &#8220;Add&#8221;</p>
<p>It will think a second and then tell you it is</p>
<p>done. Go back to your iGoogle home and you will see a gadget displaying your latest posts&#8230;</p>
<p>You are done!</p>
<p>When you are looking at your feed gadget on your iGoogle home page, click the little down arrow on the upper right hand corner of the gadget and choose &#8220;about this gadget&#8221; you will be taken to a page that describes your new gadget.</p>
<p>You can also add just a button using <a href="http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html">Google&#8217;s button creator</a>.</p>
<p>If you have dealt with some programming before, I highly suggest taking a look at another Google product that is just fabulous&#8230; the <a href="http://www.google.com/uds/solutions/dynamicfeed/index.html">Google AJAX Feed API</a></p>
<h2><strong>3) Sprout</strong></h2>
<p>Sprout is an interface that allows you to create flash widgets without knowing flash. It is a very impressive tool that is used by some big players. For the purpose of this tutorial I am just going to describe how to make a feed, but you can add videos, pictures, twitter, just about anything really.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s make a widget out of the SEOish feed&#8230;</p>
<p>Go to the <a href="http://sproutbuilder.com/getstarted">Sprout Get Started page</a> and click the enormous button that says &#8220;Start building now&#8221;. If you are in IE it may take awhile to load. Whe it does it will present you with some choices. Choose &#8220;Blank Slate&#8221;&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1091" title="sprout" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sprout.jpg" alt="sprout" width="448" height="313" /></p>
<p>Once you click that you will asked to enter a title and description of your project. I put as a title &#8220;SEOish&#8221; and as a description &#8220;A fabulously wonderful resource on widgets and SEO&#8221;. <img src='http://www.seoish.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>Next you will come to the canvas. The white square in the middle of the page is your widget canvas&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1092" title="sprout-2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sprout-2.jpg" alt="sprout-2" width="448" height="242" /></p>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1094" title="sprout31" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sprout31.jpg" alt="sprout31" width="218" height="227" />In the upper left hand corner, click &#8220;general&#8221;. Once you do that the menu will expand and now you have to choose &#8220;News Feed&#8221;&#8230;</p>
<p>When you choose news feed it will then think a minute and then present you with a square in your canvas you can adjust this square to cover the whole canvas.</p>
<p>Next we must tell the widget builder what feed to put in there. Over on the right hand side of the page you will see bunches of choices, but let&#8217;s look at the one that says &#8220;Feed URL&#8221;.</p>
<p>This is where you enter your feed url and once you do you will see your latest posts show up in the widget.</p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-1095 alignnone" title="sprout4" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sprout4.jpg" alt="sprout4" width="448" height="293" /></p>
<p>In the upper right hand corner look for the &#8220;preview&#8221; button. Click it and it will show you a preview of your widget&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1098" title="sprout5" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/sprout5.jpg" alt="sprout5" width="448" height="276" /></p>
<p>Now you can do whatever you want, add pictures, format it or just leave it as it is.</p>
<p>When you like how it looks just click &#8220;save&#8221; it is in the upper right hand corner near &#8220;preview&#8221;.</p>
<p>To see it and get the code you will have to hit &#8220;publish&#8221;. You will be asked to make an account (again, simple and easy). Congrats! you now have a flash widget.</p>
<h2><strong>4) Dapper.net</strong></h2>
<p>Dapper.net is a very strong a robust tool. You get alot of choices of how to display your feed as a widget (flash, Google gadget, Netvibes gadget, etc.).</p>
<p>To get started on dapper go to the <a href="http://www.dapper.net/dapp-factory.jsp">create Dapp page</a>.<img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1087" title="dapper-feed" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dapper-feed-251x300.jpg" alt="dapper-feed" width="251" height="300" /></p>
<p>Choose the tab that says &#8220;In an existing RSS Feed&#8221;&#8230;</p>
<p>Enter your feed url. After you enter your url look at the choices you have (in the pic to right the choices are to the left of the RSS button).</p>
<p>Choose if you want a Google gadget, Netvibes Module, or just an RSS feed. If you choose the Google gadget or the Netvibes module, that is what you will get. Pretty simple.</p>
<p>If you choose RSS feed however, you get some more interesting choices&#8230;</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s choose the RSS feed option for SEOish.com. I entered http://www.seoish.com and then I choose RSS feed, then I hit the &#8220;Next step&#8221; button. Here is what the next page looks like&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1090" title="dapperfeed2" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dapperfeed2.jpg" alt="dapperfeed2" width="448" height="304" /></p>
<p>This page is a preview of what is possible to display from your feed. If you have titles, descriptions, and dates then you are doing good. You can make some changes on this page like remove the publication date (by unchecking it in the upper right hand corner) but for the purposes of what we are doing right now let&#8217;s just go to the next step. The next page will give you a host of choices of how to display your content. Play around with them all. You will have to make an account to do this (simple, free, easy).</p>
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		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>How To Internationalize Google Gadgets</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-internationalize-google-gadgets/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/how-to-internationalize-google-gadgets/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:04:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[How to make Google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[iGoogle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[webdev]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1053</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One underutilized method of gadget spread is Internationalization. Google gadgets that are only listed in the English language are missing tens of millions of potential users. The Google gadget directory, when seen in Italy, prefers to show Italian language descriptions and titles. They are more useful to Italian users. Also consider that when an Italian [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p><img class="size-full wp-image-346 alignright" style="margin: 7px;" title="help_earth" src="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/help_earth.png" alt="" width="128" height="128" />One underutilized method of gadget spread is Internationalization.</p>
<p><strong>Google gadgets that are only listed in the English language are missing tens of millions of potential users. </strong></p>
<p>The Google gadget directory, when seen in Italy, prefers to show Italian language descriptions and titles. They are more useful to Italian users. Also consider that when an Italian user is searching for a &#8220;cat&#8221; gadget they are actually typing the word &#8220;gatto&#8221;. They are looking for things in their own language. This is naturally true of all languages.</p>
<p><em>Consider this &#8211; There are currently no &#8220;gatto&#8221; (cat) gadgets in the entire Google gadget directory. If you do actually have a cat gadget, I highly suggest you internationalize it to get those Italians <img src='http://www.seoish.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </em></p>
<p>Many gadgets are not language specific, for example a gadget displaying cute, adorable cat photos need not be limited to English or any other language. Clocks are another example of a non-language specific gadget.</p>
<p><strong>If you have a Google gadget and want it to display in different languages when it is displayed in different countries, here is how you do so&#8230;</strong></p>
<blockquote><p><em>The best place to get information about Google is from Google itself. The process I am describing is documented at Google under their <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/i18n.html">Gadgets and Internationalization Spec (i18n)</a>. This walkthru of the process is just a simplification of that spec.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Click the image below to see up close what the same gadget looks like when described in different languages.</p>
<p>There are basically three steps to gadget internationalization&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/gadget-internationalization.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-356 alignright" style="margin: 7px 6px;" title="gadget-internationalization" src="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/gadget-internationalization.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="164" /></a></p>
<p>1. Decide which countries and languages you wish to cover and then acquire the translation of your gadget description and title.</p>
<p>2. Make small text files called &#8220;message bundles&#8221;</p>
<p>3. Edit your gadget code to include the language support.</p>
<p><strong>Ready? Let&#8217;s go international.</strong></p>
<p>First you need the translations. <em>For most gadgets you need only translate two things, the title and the description, but you also can translate user preferences as well.</em></p>
<h2>Translating your Google gadget title and description</h2>
<p>Copy and paste your gadget description. Using the <a href="http://www.google.com/ig/directory?hl=en&amp;type=gadgets&amp;url=www.gadzi.com/gadgets/panda.xml">Panda gadget</a> as an example the English description is&#8230;</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;Adorable Panda bear for your homepage. Interact and feed your panda some bamboo.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Go to Google&#8217;s <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate_t#">translation tool</a> and paste your description into the text field&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/translate.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-362" title="translate" src="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/translate.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="232" /></a></p>
<p>Choose the language you description is in and then choose the language you want it translated into, in this case I am translated my English description into Korean. Click the translate button&#8230;.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/korean.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-363" title="korean" src="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/korean.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="66" /></a></p>
<p>Now copy and paste your translation and save into a text file. Repeat this process for your gadget title.</p>
<p>Congrats! You now have a Korean description and title of your gadget. Now let&#8217;s set up our gadget to display the Korean description when someone in Korea is looking at it&#8230;</p>
<h2>Message Bundles</h2>
<p>A message bundle is a small simple xml file that contains callable information. For example, when Google detects that someone in Korea is looking at your gadget it will look for a Korean &#8220;message bundle&#8221; if you have instructed it to do so in the gadget code (we will discuss that part in a minute). This message bundle is just a small text file which the gadget calls to display the Korean text. The below image shows the code&#8230;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/messagebundle.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-367" title="messagebundle" src="http://www.webuildpages.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/messagebundle.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="206" /></a></p>
<p>The above file is called for the Panda gadget when it is being displayed in Korea. The above shown code is the entire message bundle. It may look a bit scary in Korean, but if you look closer you are only defining three things&#8230;</p>
<p>Title, description, and Directory_title (which is for almost all purposes the same thing as the title).</p>
<p>To make your own message bundle <a href="http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/panda/ko_ALL.xml">follow this link to go to the above code</a>. Important! When you go to that file make sure to left click and choose &#8220;view source&#8221;. Copy and paste the code into a text editor and save it as &#8220;ko_ALL.xml&#8221; (I will explain why is a second). Take the title and description translation you created in the first step and paste them in the appropriate parts of the code.</p>
<p>Paste the title you translated and paste inbetween the &lt;msg name=&#8221;title&#8221;&gt; and the &lt;/msg&gt; tags. Also place the title translation in the &#8220;directory_title&#8221; part too. &lt;msg name=&#8221;Directory_title&#8221;&gt;&lt;/msg&gt; Now do the same for your description.</p>
<p>For each language you need a separate message bundle file. These files must be hosted somewhere, they will be called from your Google gadget code, as described below.</p>
<h2><strong>Altering Google gadget code for internationalization</strong></h2>
<p>In order to take advantage of Google&#8217;s impressive geo location abilities, we must first add some code to our gadget.</p>
<p>In order to display the information contained in the message bundles (the translations) you must first call for them. Google will figure out where the user is coming from, but you must tell Google what to do with that information.</p>
<p>The way to do this is by changing some information in the ModulePrefs of your existing gadget. If you do not know what moduleprefs are you may want to see my Google gadget tutorial.</p>
<p>ModulePrefs (Module Preferences) is the first part of a Google gadget code and it&#8217;s function is to tell Google certain things that are specific to that gadget. Things like the title, the author, etc. If you already have a Google gadget, you already have a ModulePref section.</p>
<p>In the image below I have circled the parts of the ModulePref that I have altered in the Panda gadget to make it international&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1058" title="modprefs-language" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/modprefs-language.jpg" alt="modprefs-language" width="448" height="280" /></p>
<p>Notice that the title and the descriptions are now calling a variable instead of just using text.</p>
<p>title=&#8221;__MSG_title__&#8221;</p>
<p>description=&#8221;__MSG_description__&#8221;</p>
<p>I also changed the directory title pref&#8230;</p>
<p>directory_title=&#8221;__MSG_Directory_title__&#8221;</p>
<p>By changing these values I have now made them variable which means that Google can decide what to put in those fields depending on what language Google detects is being used.</p>
<p>Now the big chunk of code I have entered is the Locale part. Let&#8217;s look closer at what it is doing in there&#8230;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1059" title="modprefs-locale" src="http://www.seoish.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/modprefs-locale.jpg" alt="modprefs-locale" width="428" height="119" /></p>
<p>The first line tells Google where to find your default message bundle. The default one is named &#8220;ALL_ALL.xml.</p>
<p>The info in the ALL_ALL.xml message bundle is the default info that should be displayed in case thing go kooky or something does not work, so this is an important one. This should be a message bundle in the default language of the gadget. In the case of our Panda example it is in English. See the ALL_ALL.xml file for the panda gadget <a href="http://gadzi.com/gadgets/panda/ALL_ALL.xml">here</a>.</p>
<p>Each message bundle is exactly the same code, just different content for different languages. Each message bundle is named something different depending on what language is contained within it. For each language you choose to cover with your gadget, you must tell Google. this is what the remaining code in the image above is doing. For example let&#8217;s look at the Korean message bundle we made above and how it is listed in the gadget code:</p>
<p>&lt;Locale lang=&#8221;ko&#8221; messages=&#8221;http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/panda/ko_ALL.xml&gt;</p>
<p>This line says to Google &#8220;If someone using Korean is looking at this gadget &#8211; use the information contained in the message bundle ko_ALL.xml&#8221;</p>
<p>Each of the lines you see in the code image above are just repeats of this same message for different languages.</p>
<p>So to change the gadget code we had to make the title, description, and the directory_title variables.</p>
<p>We then had to add a line telling Google where to find the default information for those variables.</p>
<p>We then had to provide a line of code telling Google which message bundle to use for each language we want to cover.</p>
<p>To learn more go to Google&#8217;s documentation: <em><a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/docs/i18n.html">Gadgets and Internationalization Spec (i18n)</a></em></p>
<p>To see the panda gadget example code go to: <a href="http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/panda.xml">Panda Gadget Example code</a></p>
<p>To see how the Google gadget directory displays languages go to: <a href="http://www.seoish.com/google-gadget-international-usage-numbers/">Google Gadget International Usage</a></p>
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		<title>Weird Asia News Widget</title>
		<link>http://www.seoish.com/weird-asia-news-widget/</link>
		<comments>http://www.seoish.com/weird-asia-news-widget/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:06:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>pat</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[google gadgets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Open Social]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[widgets]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.seoish.com/?p=1049</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I was going to do a post about some basic widget strategies. I asked Brent Csutoras if he wouldn&#8217;t mind me using his site, Weird Asia News, as an example for widgets. He said no prob, I have yet to write the post yet, but since I do have a widget made, might as well [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>I was going to do a post about some basic widget strategies. I asked <a href="http://www.brentcsutoras.com/">Brent Csutoras</a> if he wouldn&#8217;t mind me using his site, <a href="http://www.weirdasianews.com">Weird Asia News</a>, as an example for widgets. He said no prob, I have yet to write the post yet, but since I do have a widget made, might as well put it out there (this one is made from <a href="http://www.sproutbuilder.com">Sprout</a> and will be part of a tutorial). The video is ridiculously funny. It is an actual Korean TV commercial.</p>
<p><script src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertWidget.js?appId=ede4addd-2b01-4abd-8848-c0b5ba82a8c2" type="text/javascript"></script><noscript>Get the &amp;lt;a href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/weird-asia-news-seoish&#8221; mce_href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/weird-asia-news-seoish&#8221;&amp;gt;Weird Asia News&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; widget and many other &amp;lt;a href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com/&#8221; mce_href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com/&#8221;&amp;gt;great free widgets&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; at &amp;lt;a href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com&#8221; mce_href=&#8221;http://www.widgetbox.com&#8221;&amp;gt;Widgetbox&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;!</noscript></p>
<p>I will be dong some basic widgets for a few sites as part of an upcoming series. Let me know if you are interested in getting your stuff widgetized.</p>
<p><strong><em>note to Brent: before you do anything with this widget, email me. I want to use in a test I am doing starting Wednesday or so.</em></strong></p>
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