widgets

Facebook, which says it's making a big announcement this week, is trying to keep details under wraps. But that hasn't stopped the Internet's rabid gossip mill.

Last month, word began to circulate that Facebook was working on a deal to introduce third-party widgets (embeddable code containing external content like music or video) into its member profiles. And early in May, several blogs reported that Facebook was rumored to be launching a music service on Monday--a bit of speculation that does not appear to have been true. But one thing that is confirmed is that Facebook will hold … Read more

E-commerce mashup company Mpire released on Wednesday a widget that lets bloggers and Web site operators embed shopping widgets in their Web pages.

The widgets will display trend information culled from different e-commerce sites, including eBay and Amazon.com, and let people buy items online from the widget.

For example, a person who runs a blog on fashion can create a widget that will display which shoes are currently selling best online and at what prices.

Mpire has created 75 different widgets that aggregate information, such as prices over time or top search terms, from eBay's and Amazon's … Read more

eBay has a neat new way to promote your items for free. Users can take any item listed on the auction service and widgetize it using a really simple editor. There are three options to choose from: single item, multiple item, and search. The multiple items widget has a scrolling display of item images, and is good for Powersellers, or anyone who is selling a few things at a time. What's great is that you don't even need to sign in to eBay to make one, just an item number.

When you're done creating a widget, you … Read more

Google is renaming its personal home page iGoogle tonight. Google is also adding a new tool called Gadget Maker that helps people create their own widgets for use on their iGoogle page. The Gadget Maker comes with seven templates, including two media gadgets to pull in content from YouTube and online and offline photo collections. Users will also be able to organize their personal space with a countdown timer and a simple 10 item to-do list. There's also a free-form widget that lets a user mix together various media such as text and pictures.

This is a step in … Read more

There are two major lessons to be learned from this weekend's fiery freeway collapse in Oakland, California.

The first lesson is that, despite all that concrete and steel, when faced with intense heats close to 3,000°F, freeways built to withstand earthquakes crumble like toys.

The second is that we generally take even heavily congested commutes for granted. San Francisco Bay Area commuters are now looking at months of overcrowded and out-of-the-way alternative routes while contractors and engineers clean up the mess of melted roadway.

Thankfully, software developers are commuters just like you and me. I've … Read more

Flektor is a new Flash-based content mashup tool. Users can pull in photos from several hosting services like flickr, MySpace, and Photobucket to make slick-looking, embeddable media slide shows for blogs, Web sites or social networks. It's a lot like Mixercast, and other media mashup services like RockYou and SplashCast.

Flektor's interface is drag-and-drop, and has a very short learning curve. To add media to your show, just drag imported media files down to a timeline at the bottom of the screen, where they can be rearranged or removed at any time. There are also "Flidgets" which can be inserted into your show to add live chat, a live broadcast from your Webcam, or cliched film effects like color bars or static. What's really neat is the ability to edit any picture with some easy-to-use sliders that let you do simple, on-the-fly alterations to your photographs--something you'd find on a Web-based photo editing tool like Picnik.

To add a little flair to your show, there are nearly 100 transitions, effects, and filters that can be put on top of or in between your media. You can also edit each effect and change its appearance. Out of the many transitions I've seen on some of these Flash editors (Photobucket's Remix in particular), Flektor has some really snappy and good-looking effects.

The main hindrance in using Flektor is how long it takes to communicate with the third-party services. Flickr in particular takes quite a while to sync up photos from various albums. On the upside, the MySpace integration is very simple; just give it a username and it will pull up photos members have uploaded in addition to any images that have been embedded in user comments. It's also easy to embed your Flektor player on a number of services, with a handy export page that provides special embedding codes for a dozen services (including Google's Orkut).

I've embedded a sample "Flek" I put together using some photo and video clips. For screenshots of the editing interface, keep reading.

[via Mashable]

… Read more

Eliot van Buskirk on Wired's Listening Post blog is reporting that a source has informed him of what could be a pretty darn interesting development in the world of social networking. Buskirk writes that social networking site Facebook plans to allow its members to embed third-party widgets on their profiles, "allowing users to embed outside audio, video, and other content onto their profile pages for the first time."

Currently, there are features to "share" media on Facebook, but no way to embed third-party content or to customize the design of members' profiles. As Buskirk wrote … Read more

Need a Web application, but don't have a bevy of developers on your payroll? No problem, you have options.

Dapper.net is a place to build Web apps or mashups using content from any site. Before building, first check to see if there are any search for "Dapps" out there already doing what you want (for example, converting Webware content into a Netvibes module). There are 10,000 Dapps in existence so far, according to Dapper CEO Eran Shir. But, if a search comes back negative, you can create your own Dapp. Just tell Dapper which Web … Read more

Box.net, the online storage service, has updated their embeddable widget with a new group sharing feature for members with premium and professional accounts. Users can password protect a shared folder, which can then be accessed privately by others with the code. Storage owners can opt-in to allow user uploading, which lets anyone with access add files. The company is gearing it at businesses, whereas its previous widget incarnation was aimed at users with social networking profiles.

For group users to keep track of updates to shared folders, each share gets its own RSS feed. Once subscribed, the name and … Read more