UK Google Gadget Directory Has New Look
Update: This layout also just went live in France moments ago.
This is very likely a sneek peek at what the seemingly constantly changing iGoogle gadget directory will look like internationally soon.
The Google UK gadget directory has a new layout….
The above screen capture shows the search results for “Gadzi” (one of my gadget aliases). The layout allows 15 gadgets to appear on each page.
Below is the United States version of the same page …
The US version has remained the same since the “big change” that happened at the end of October. The current US layout only allows 7 gadgets per search results page, which did seem odd.
I believe that the new UK layout is a test, and that it has been chosen as the more ideal layout for users, as it offers more choice.
International versions of the iGoogle gadget directory also offer a glimpse into how many people are using your gadgets per country. A couple of months ago, Google initiated a change in the way that gadget usage numbers are displayed. As a result many people thought that their gadget use dropped dramatically.
What actually occurred was that Google started (in early November) to display only the amount of users that are using a gadget in the specified country. For an example I had one gadget that had 5000 users, one day as I was checking numbers I noticed that the number of users dropped to 2800. When I looked into it, I found that 2800 was the number of US users only, I still had 5000 people using my gadget (1000 or so in the UK, a few hundred in Canada, etc.) but I had to go to different country directories to find this out.
To see what your usage is in other countries, simply change the url:
Here is the USA page for my monkey gadget…
The USA URL for this gadget is:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=http://www.gadzi.com/gadgets/monkey.xml
Now if you just change the “.com” to “.co.uk” you will see the UK version of the monkey gadget, which displays the UK usage number…
If you are following certain countries, just change the “.com” to whatever country you are wanting to see numbers for (.ca ,it .fr .de etc.) Here is the Canadian version…
This can show you interesting things.
Particularly for affiliate gadgets…
Here is my Kayak search gadget…
Kayak is primarily a US entity (even though they have different versions for the UK / France etc.) I will go ahead and make a UK gadget due to the fact that there is hardly any UK usage of this gadget.
The way Google reports per country can also help you know when some serious strategy is need, also when translation may become necessary for one of your gadgets.
One final note about the iGoogle gadget directory…
The search function of all the countries still has a major relevancy problem, sometime it is so bad it blows yor mind. I will speak more about this soon and give specific examples.
I have also refrained from speaking of each and every tweak of the directory because it has undergone so many changes in the last few months that it is clear that there is usability testing going on pretty heavy.
All things considered, the new Layout for the UK is a major change, and the first country specific change that I have identified, and therefore I am predicting that the new UK layout is likely what the gadget directory will will look like for all countries pretty soon.
Related posts:The Google Gadget Directory Changes
Google gadgets usage and pageview numbers
Google Gadget Syndication Directory - Live for New Google Toolbar
