MakeUseOf Directory » widget

GAget: Get Google Analytics Right On Your Mac Desktop

Umar — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:01:42 +0000

Whether you are a private blog owner or a webmaster in charge of multiple websites, there is a very good chance that you use Google Analytics to track your site’s traffic. But some people might find it inconvenient to open up their web browser each time they need to check site stats. Fortunately for Mac users there is an app called GAget available.

GAget is a free to use desktop application for Mac computers. After set up the app runs smoothly on your desktop and provides you with your site’s Google Analytics stats. In case you have multiple sites you can run multiple instances of the application on your desktop.

Features:

A user-friendly desktop application.
Compatible with Mac computers.
Brings Google Analytics data to your desktop.
Lets you run multiple instances of the applications.

Check out GAget @ http://www.zoltanhosszu.com/gaget (By Umar from AllthatIsApple)

Zooshia: Easily Create Social Widgets For Your Blog

Hammad — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:01:43 +0000

Every social network has its own widget for blogs and websites but there are hardly any widgets which combines feeds from multiple social networks. Thanks to Zooshia, you can now create a customized widget which will show updates from up to 10 Facebook, Twitter or YouTube account feeds.

To get started, simply select the feed source, add the URL of each feed and click on the Add button. After creating the widget, you can customize the color, the size and style of the widget as well. It will show you the preview of your widget and give you the code which you can embed in your blog or website. It will also display the total number of followers you have on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube in the taskbar.

Features

A user-friendly web service.
Create widgets from social networks.
Support Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Display the total number of followers you have on each feed.

Check out Zooshia @ http://www.zooshia.com (by Hammad from TechnicallyDigital)

Pokki: Get Desktop Applications For Popular Web Services

MOin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:01:50 +0000

Desktop apps are generally more responsive than web apps which is why people prefer desktop clients of numerous web services over their native web interfaces. If you are one of these people then you will find Pokki to be very helpful.

Pokki is a set of desktop apps that correspond to popular web services. Currently these services are limited to Gmail, Facebook, LivingSocial, Groupie, Headlines, Wall Street, eBay, and Tweeki. You can download a Pokki for any service and have its icon appear in your Windows taskbar. Each Pokki helps you use your browser less for each service.

The Facebook Pokki, for instance, displays your News Feed, Notifications, Messages, and Friend Requests; but to read your messages or go to a wall post, the Pokki opens Facebook in your web browser.

Such desktop applications will certainly save you time while using the abovementioned services. Pokki also offers developers an SDK to assist them in creating Pokkis for their own apps.

Features:

A user-friendly tool.
Provides desktop clients for popular web services.
Helps save your time while using these services.
Provides SDK to help developers create desktop clients for their own apps.
Similar tools: Desktopify, Snippage and Grazzr.

Check out Pokki @ www.pokki.com (via TechCrunch) (by MOin from Urban Savior)

Swidget: Replace Banner Ads On Sites With Widgets

abhijeet — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:01:24 +0000

If you don’t like banner ads on your favorite websites and you want to replace them with something more useful then you might consider trying this tool called Swidget. The term “widget” in its name has probably given you an idea about what it does. It is a browser extension that helps you to replace the banner ads with widgets.

It offers all kind of widgets; be it a weather widget, reviews from Yelp, or a stock index tracker. There are a huge number of widgets to choose from. The add-on works with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome.

The Swidget bar appears over the banner ads and has a drop-down arrow which, when clicked, shows the widgets that you can choose to overlap that ad.

Features

Replace banner ads with all kinds of widgets.
Huge variety of web widgets to choose from.
Browser extension; compatible with IE, Firefox and Chrome.
Similar tools: NotForest, Readmeo, TidyRead, Readability, Readable, and AllTextPaper.

Check out Swidget @ swidget.com (By Abhijeet from GT Mobiles)

CountdownCalendar: An embeddable countdown calendar for your website

Umar — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 17:01:44 +0000

If there is a date coming up that is important to your website, you should put up a countdown calendar on the site for all your site visitors to see. An easy way to embed a countdown calendar on your blog is through a web service that is simply titled Countdown Calendar.

Countdown Calendar is a free and simple to use web service that helps embed a small widget on your site or blog. The result is something like in the image above; the widget counts down days and hours to your specified date. The appearance of this widget can be customized using tools available on the site. You can choose whatever title for the event and choose between a countdown of days or an exact timer countdown.

You can also control the size and color scheme of the countdown widget.

When you are done with your modifications, you can copy the generated HTML code at the center of the site. Paste this code on your own site or blog to place the countdown calendar widget there.

Features:

A user friendly web service.
Lets you embed a countdown calendar on your site or blog.
Lets you customize the widget in various ways.
Provides embeddable code for the widget.

Check out Countdown Calendar @ http://countdowncalendar.net/Calendar.aspx/Create (By Umar from TechCityInc)

Widget Block: Block third party widgets on sites you visit (Chrome)

MOin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:01:23 +0000

An increasing number of websites have third party widgets on their pages. While these widgets might facilitate social networking and visitors sharing the site, they also slow down page loading times. To get rid of these widgets on the sites you browse, check out Widget Block.

Widget Block is a free web tool and it comes as a browser extension for Google Chrome. After installing the extension you will instantly notice that the most popular third party widgets on most websites get blocked. As a result, you will experience faster page loading times on sites that have these widgets.

To control which widgets to allow and which to block, access the options of Widget Block where you will find an impressive number of websites whose widgets are supported by the extension.

Features:

A user friendly tool.
Comes as an extension for Google Chrome.
Blocks the most popular third party widgets.
Contributes to improved page loading times.
Detects the widgets of many websites.
Also read related articles: Use Adblock To Block Online Ads and Malware and How To Block Ads In Any Browser Without Adblock.

Check out Widget Block @ https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/hgiihiookhijpbhaflohognbhmamdnol (via LifeHacker) (by MOin from ThumbPress)

MyÂµStats: Display Website Traffic Stats & Ranks

Umar — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:01:48 +0000

By displaying the traffic and social networking of your blog or site to your visitors, you can help others learn how popular your site is. In turn, this can get you an increasing number of visitors and networking mentions. An easy way to display the ranking and networking stats for your site is MyµStats.

My µStats is a simple and free to use web tool. The tool works from its website by providing you with a few lines of embeddable code. The code is generated after you type in your site’s / blog’s URL. The next step for you is to paste this code into your own site’s HTML and let My µStats work as an online widget on your site.

The widget will monitor and display the Google, Yahoo, Technorati, Alexa, Feedburner, and Delicious, incoming values and ranks of your site or blog.

Features:

A user friendly online tool.
Lets you publicly display your site’s traffic and social networking stats.
Works as a widget through a simple embeddable code.
Gathers data from Google, Yahoo, Technorati, Alexa, Feedburner, and Delicious.

Check out My µStats @ www.myustats.com (By Umar from TechCityInc)

Feed Wind: Generate An Embeddable Widget From RSS Feeds

Umar — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:10:34 +0000

You can easily keep in touch with a site through its RSS feed. But what if you want another site’s updates to appear on your own blogs or websites? In that, you will need to make use of “Feed Wind.”

Feed Wind is a very simple online tool that is completely free to use. Through Feed Wind you can convert any RSS feed into a “˜blog roll’ widget that can be easily placed on your site via embeddable code. After you paste in the feed’s URL, you can customize the look of the blog roll widget: you can select the resolution, colors, and entry lengths within the blog roll. A preview of the roll is updated in real-time on the right of the editing controls.

When you are satisfied with the preview you can copy the code that is generated in a box under the preview.

Paste this code on your own blog or site and you will have the blog roll you desired.

Key Features:

RSS to widget converter
A user friendly website
Lets you convert RSS feeds into Blog Rolls
Blog Rolls are customizable
Embeddable code for the Blog Rolls is provided
Similar tools: Cyclur, Grazr, Feed Source, ScrollBox, WidgetEasy and Wigitize.

Check out Feed Wind @ http://feed.mikle.com/en/ (By Umar from TechCityInc)

Widgetop: Brings Apple Dashboard Widgets Online

Israel Nicolas — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 21:01:29 +0000

Wouldn’t it be nice to have your very own web desktop where you can try out widgets so that you won’t have to clutter your PC desktop? Widgetop is a web desktop that allows you to use apple dashboard widgets on the web so you can access them from anywhere.

Choose from the many useful mini applications such as dashboard widgets, Google gadgets, YourMinis widgets and RSS feeds and slideshows from the widget gallery.

Upon entering the Widgetop site, you can choose to log into your account, create an account, or test the web desktop without saving it. Widgetop features a favorites bar so you can easily bookmark and access the widgets that you like.

You can also easily customize the appearance of any widget based on your preference with just a click of a button. Widgetop also feature a public web desktops feature where you can view and edit shared desktops by other users.

Widgetop is a handy and accessible sandbox that is great for trying out the latest widgets that the web has to offer.

Features:

Web desktop for trying out new widgets.
Access your web desktop anywhere by signing for an account.
Favorites bar lets you easily access and bookmark the widgets that you like.
View and edit publicly shared desktops.
Similar Tools: Desktopify, Snippage, and Cloudo.

Check out Widgetop @ www.widgetop.com/desktop.html

Wolfram Alpha Widgets: Wolfram Alpha Widget Builder

abhijeet — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 21:01:50 +0000

Wolfram Alpha made quite a stir when it was launched. It was dubbed as a new kind of knowledge engine, and it did live up to some of the expectations. However, the initial enthusiasm around the product seems to have died down and Wolfram Alpha Widgets looks to be the right step in spreading the word about this tool.

These widgets are, as they call them, mini apps that can be used anywhere. You can embed it on your site, share it via email, post on Twitter or share it on Facebook. You can also customize their look and feel.

The widgets aren’t that hard to build either and there’s a Widget Gallery that has a number of them in different categories to help you get started.

Features

Mini apps based on Wolfram Alpha.
Share them on sites, social networks and more.
Easy to create and customize.
Widget Gallery featuring all kinds of widgets available.

Check out Wolfram Alpha Widgets@developer.wolframalpha.com/widgets/index.html (By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)