Blog widgets more harmful than good Aug12 '07

I've talked before about only pushing content relative to it's domain:

Flash and JavaScript widgets are tacky, gaudy, and unprofessional. I've experimented with widgets before, but lately I've been feeling they cause more harm than good.

Depending on what kind of personal site/blog you are running, you may want widgets floating all over the place. Heck, I've seen some pretty effective sites with only one or two widgets.

But in most cases, widgets only "booger up" a web page. It's almost like sticking "Intel Inside" stickers all over your computer.

Widgets promote a cluttered and inconsistent look, often break HTML layouts, and reduce page loading speed.

Oh, and there's plenty more reasons why they suck.

Any ideas on a solution to this problem? Should sites allow API's, rather than widgets?

Categories: Flash , JavaScript , Perception

Add Feedback (view all)

Leave feedback

Feedback

Input format: The editor controls below will assist with Markdown syntax.

Status

Sub-status

Your info

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from a suburb of Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.

Contact Matt

Popular Pages

  1. Fast rounded corners in Photoshop (4152 recent visits)
  2. PHP – passing variables across pages (1559 recent visits)
  3. JavaScript set selected on load (1290 recent visits)
  4. Removing all child nodes from an element (882 recent visits)
  5. iPod songs out of order? (747 recent visits)
  6. Britney - Everytime piano tab (669 recent visits)
  7. Firefox 3 smart address bar: wildcard search (633 recent visits)
  8. MySQL LEFT JOIN syntax (543 recent visits)
  9. Breathe Me - Sia (508 recent visits)
  10. Tumblr: how blogging should be (403 recent visits)

Similar Entries

Stats

6 unique visits since August 2008

Syndicate

Advertisements