Most blog authors don’t like to slow down and complicate their websites for any reason and most blog readers hate having to read a page that’s decorated like a Christmas tree with ads, headers and "share this" and "tweet me" buttons.

Sometimes though you encounter a tool that doesn’t complicate your life but just makes things easier and much clearer by replacing some site tools and plugins. I think the Wibiya bar is something like this. I know many of you might fear an extra popping up bar as an extra layer on your site, but I will show you how it’s really pretty unobtrusive.

The bar is a semi-transparent overlay on your site which is home to a number of application or buttons. You can choose which buttons you want to use. Most are for your readers to find or share contents of your site easier or connect your readers with each other or you as the author.

The following list of applications is available right now (from left to right in the image), and includes things you can embed such as games, Facebook, Twitter and more. You can see the Wibiya bar in action on this website. It appears right at the very bottom of your browser window.

The bar is under full development so expect a lot of new features in the coming weeks to months.

• Blog search – the favicon lets you choose between searching the blog or searching Google. The results page loads fast and looks pretty slick.



• Google translate the current page – It’s not the same as having a blog in multiple languages, but Google translate always manages to produce a readable page for your international readers.
• Recent posts – Gives a nice list of your last articles. Basically a mini RSS-reader.
• Random post – Sends your reader to a random page on your site. This and the recent posts button could make your readers stick around for a longer while.
• Image Gallery (not in the screenshot) – shows a cool image gallery of a flickr album using Cooliris.
• Subscribe to RSS – a way to subscribe to the RSS feed.
• Share – share the post on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or Del.icio.us. This could replace some of your other plugins.
• Facebook Connect – when you install the Wibiya bar you automatically start a Facebook community for your site. People can join and they can chat in the group. You can also send them all a message.



• Twitter console – On the right side you can display a Twitter account of your preference. Perhaps your personal account or that of your site. On the left side all the tweets about the page are shown, powered by Backtype. Users can tweet right from the console, with a shortened URL of the page.



• If you want you can show every new visitor a small pop-up with a short welcome or about message.
• Games (not in the screenshot) – this is one of the recent additions. You can embed games on your blog so that people can play games on your site by HeyZap.

These are the current applications. You can switch any on or off on your bar and you can choose a color and favicon that suits your blog. The Wibiya bar is in private beta right now so expect many more applications to appear. When you give feedback now you might even shape it the way you want.

The dashboard on the Wibiya site offers you some interesting statistics like how many people have subscribed to your RSS feed, how many tweets about your pages and such.

The app may be in private beta for some but not for MakeUseOf readers! Sign up here for the beta (the bar is totally free) with your name and the suffix MUO (like Joe Johnson MUO) and you will be approved within 24-48 hours. Let us know in the comments if you have added the bar to your site.

Image Credit: HGruber

Tagged: blogging • blogging tools • webmaster tools