FridayBlowout

Widgets are like sprinkles on ice cream. They not only look good, they add a little something to an otherwise already great stuff. However, unlike sprinkles, widgets can actually take you farther. If you’re looking for ways to spruce up your website or want to increase its functionality, here are the top 5 coolest widgets you can use:

1. Forms

They may seem a bit too… administrative but these widgets make this list because they are very functional. Forms come in all types, styles and uses so you merely have to pick one that is a good fit for your site. Forms are perfect for sites that need to process information from their users.

If you have a site that accepts personal details from visitors, for example, you’ll find these widgets very useful. They can perform simple validation and give you feedback. Some widgets can even display any error messages that might come as a result of erroneous entries. And yes, they won’t bog down the server. Free widgets offer the basics but if you’re willing to shell out a few bucks, you’ll be amazed at some nifty functionalities they come with.

2. Slideshows

If you want to wow your users and visitors and give them the courtesy of letting them watch a series of images or textual messages virtually hands-free, you’ll like this cool Web 2.0 widget. A slideshow widget can change the transition styles of each slide and let one image fade, fold or distort into the next. This widget is great if your site features multiple groups of topics that you don’t want to offer as a list. If they’re in a slideshow, your list doesn’t have to go all the way down your webpage. This is also useful if you want to use images as teasers for your future topics. Or if you just want to entertain your visitors, this cool widget works well that way, too.

3. Automated poll takers

What’s a Web 2.0 site if you can’t have fun with it? Web 2.0 is all about interaction and collaboration so there’s really no point for you to become an island. A Web 2.0 widget that takes polls is not only fun to install, it can also be quite useful. Automated poll takers are excellent for use on business sites (such as when you want to know what your customers think) and on blogs, to keep them interactive. A poll taker widget can be quite useful to help you get a feel of trends, news and even gossip. Depending on how you use it and what you use it for, it has the potential to become one of the coolest widgets on your site.

4. Maps

Why would you need maps as widgets? For one, they’re pretty cool. Plus, they’ll fit right in on your website as some very useful reference. Online maps have come a long way since those scanned colored copies that produced distorted images on the computer monitor when enlarged. Two such widgets are the Google Map and the Yahoo! Map APIs, which you can embed into your web pages. These cool widgets come complete with useful data, map tiles and stick pins that you can program. They’re easy to use and will come in handy
if the users on your site want to locate something, right down to the street name and actual address.

And yes, while you’re at it, why not throw in a geographical application? Instead of just providing addresses like ‘Paris, France’ or ‘Sandy, Utah’, this cool Web 2.0 widget will throw in the latitude and longitude pairs that lets you locate a place exactly on the map.

5. Account management identity provider

Another cool Web 2.0 widget you might want to use is an application that eliminates the need for you to repeatedly register and manage your user accounts. Instead of your application doing all the work, it’s the identity provider that does. This means that you will be able to manage a single user account across multiple websites without bothering to create another user account.

Here is where this lesson ends for today. We really hope you enjoyed this lesson too.

You will receive the next lesson in 7 days. Next week’s lesson will have the following title:

“Top 5 Coolest Web 2.0 Websites to Check Out for 2009″

Copyright(C) 2008 by John Delavera & Reimund Lube

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