Gauge your Carbon Footprint with the Tendril Widget

Written by Groucho on December 28, 2008 under Software

Tendril Widget

A lot has been said on watching our carbon footprints these days and one thing that is sure to be of great use is this widget named Tendril. It is available for use in a Mac or your iPhone, absolutely free. So if you are conscious about how much energy you are consuming in your home like appliance energy consumption, this is a good widget that can help you monitor your usage.

But if given the choice, the interface could be improved further if there was a gadget that can easily be attached so that manual monitoring can be avoided. The free software is indeed great for monitoring your carbon footprint and if there should be innovations in the future for it, then that would have to be the various interface options to which energy usage can be made entirely easier.

Tendril is available on your Mac as a widget or on your iPhone. After a simple set up process you start getting reports on your energy usage around your home. This is useful in pinpointing exactly which appliance, computer or other electricity using device is the biggest culprit (or which group of them).

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Wowzio For the Blogger’s Edge

Written by Groucho on December 20, 2008 under Games, News, Software

Wowzio

One thing that provides edge towards blogs these days is the proper selection of widgets to use on their site. There are millions of widgets available online these days and apparently it all depends on which widget element is truly fitting for blogs that aim to give better projection and easier navigation.

Widgets are a blogger’s friend when it comes to making their site more appealing. Ranging from simple to complex widgets, it all boils down on how these widgets can be able to entertain and assist visitors on the site.

These include a Gallery Widget that automatically finds all the pictures on your blog and then builds a photo gallery using them. In addition to that, each photo title links to the relevant post. The advantages of such a widget are evident. Not only does it entail a new discovery mechanism for readers to use, it also makes for simple syndication of your photos and increased online distribution.


Other widgets that merit a mention include a Panoramic Slideshow Widget and a Live Activity Widget that displays a list of the latest visitors to your blog in real time. This includes useful information such as what specific post they are reading and where they came from.

So if you want to check out new widgets in the market, check out Wowzio. This site may contain the much longed for widgets you are looking for.

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ClearSpring Rebounds With AddThis

Written by Groucho on December 13, 2008 under News, Software, Widgets

ClearSpring

One thing you have to consider in the world of widgets and social networking is not to underestimate the power of service providers especially if they are executing a bunch of business plans to broaden their scope. ClearSpring was clearly erased and disregarded but to everyone’s surprise, it now finds itself at the top of the heap as far as number of viewers is concerned.

Gigya was initially seen to be the forerunner of the widget technology as far as traffic is concerned. But one thing about doing business on the web, do not underestimate the silence of companies that are sure to be continuously on the lookout for new business to enhance their current standing.

Widgets have so far been a rough and tumble venture, owing to the fact that other technology breakthroughs have made all possibilities entirely broader. While we all know that widgets are a familiar element in most mobile technology gadgets these days, rest assured that companies who have pioneered widget technology will not rest.

The figures do not lie and so do the unique viewers for any site. So with a 59% increase to show, Clearspring is surely on top of the heap and for all intents and purposes coughing up the dough and visits in the world of traffic in technology today.

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Are Widgets Helping or Recording Traffic?

Written by Groucho on December 8, 2008 under Widgets

For most blog owners, they are sure to have a couple of these widgets on hand.

1.Blog Catalog
2.My Blog Log

What are these widgets? They are part of the social community network to which provides blog owners exposure to a wider community as well as showing who the last visitors were in your blog. Now if we look at visitors and traffic, they are two separate things. Of the two, it is naturally better to get traffic even if you don’t know where they are coming from. As far as registered visitors are concerned, they are similar to hit counts.

While these widgets show who visited your site, it does not necessarily follow that they really read your site. They may have clicked your link by accident or perhaps wanted to see the front page only which contains summaries of your posts. So with that in mind, the question is on whether you need it or not.

Widgets are supposed to enhance websites and leave a mark to help owners know who have visited and how many they are. But there seems to be inconsistency as far as knowing who are in and who are out. Remember, the people who visit your blog may not necessarily be interested in your posts. They are there to see what your blog can offer and if they find nothing interesting, that is the end of it all.

These widgets are good to perk up your site. But as far as their main intent, a lot needs to be said with regards to their true purpose for helping blogs.

Source For most blog owners, they are sure to have a couple of these widgets on hand.

1.Blog Catalog
2.My Blog Log

What are these widgets? They are part of the social community network to which provides blog owners exposure to a wider community as well as showing who the last visitors were in your blog. Now if we look at visitors and traffic, they are two separate things. Of the two, it is naturally better to get traffic even if you don’t know where they are coming from. As far as registered visitors are concerned, they are similar to hit counts.

While these widgets show who visited your site, it does not necessarily follow that they really read your site. They may have clicked your link by accident or perhaps wanted to see the front page only which contains summaries of your posts. So with that in mind, the question is on whether you need it or not.

Widgets are supposed to enhance websites and leave a mark to help owners know who have visited and how many they are. But there seems to be inconsistency as far as knowing who are in and who are out. Remember, the people who visit your blog may not necessarily be interested in your posts. They are there to see what your blog can offer and if they find nothing interesting, that is the end of it all.

These widgets are good to perk up your site. But as far as their main intent, a lot needs to be said with regards to their true purpose for helping blogs.

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Related Posts Widget Offer More

Written by Groucho on December 4, 2008 under Widgets

Related Posts Widget

One post is fine but finding others related to it would be better. For readers, satisfying their curiosity on getting more in depth information as far as what they are reading is always a given. Also, they may want to know more because they fail to understand what they are actually reading. That is the beauty of a related posts widget which is something that any blog would surely want to have.

This comes in the form of scripts and widgets. Of the two, you know that the latter is the best option when it comes to installing widgets on your blog. Other than enriching the keywords contents of your site, it is a practical and good way to insure your readers that that is not the only post for a certain topic.

There are some WordPress Themes that have this embedded automatically upon installation. If that were the case, then good. But for sites that don’t have it, you can always download the WordPress Plugin (be sure to read the details as they are sure to be many of them around on the plugins page) and install it like any other standard widget.

There are some widgets that may require minimal appending of certain blog parts. But as long as you follow the directions usually contained on the readme file, you are safe from wrecking your blog and messing up the scripts.

After a successful update, you can be assured that your blog will be one good site to which you don’t have to worry about old posts the many deem as useless.

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