Playing With Things

Being busy, I haven’t really got anything thought provoking or intelligent to say today (sorry!) but I will talk about a little widget I’ve stuck on this blog.

Widgets are like Garden Gnomes. One or two on a blog looks okay, but any more than that and it looks a bit tacky. Also, with widgets, they can cause no end of problems to websites, particularly with loading times.

However, I have taken the plunge and decided to go with one - Google Friend Connect.

Why Google Friend Connect? Well, there are a number of reasons.

The first is that - if it does take off - it could be a great way of building traffic, and for readers to interact with one another without forming a forum. Google by the sounds of it are really pushing Friendconnect, to try and take a chunk of Facebook’s popularity, using OpenSocial code, so - as somebody who is usually late to parties when it comes to new things on the internet - I’m want in on the ground floor.

Secondly you don’t actually need to sign up to join. If you have an OpenID, or an account on technorati, blogger or any one of a multitude of other services, you can simply join my network through it.

Finally, the reasons for not putting on widgets (the lack of customisation & the fact if the servers go down my website will go down) aren’t particularly good. Google provide the same level of customisation that they do with - say - Google Adsense, and if the servers go down, well - it’s Google. Chances are that if the servers go down, the internet will effectively cease to exist.

Like everything though, especially in the world of web marketing and SEO, it requires analysis & testing. If it turns out to be a dismal failure, it will be removed. If everybody joins yet it doesn’t really benefit anybody, it will be removed. If it becomes massively popular, and you all find new blogs, and I get an influx of traffic, then it’ll probably get a more prominent position.

If you’re promoting a site, you shouldn’t rest on your laurels. Usually to improve a site you add things to it. However, sometimes you may need to take things away.

Heh, maybe I did give a useful tip after all.