American Airlines Wi-Fi Widget Goes Mobile - PR Newswire (press release)

FORT WORTH, Texas, Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- American Airlines today launched its latest customer convenience tool, the mobile Wi-Fi Widget, which allows customers to easily identify Wi-Fi equipped aircraft while on the go.

Now available for use on any Internet-equipped mobile device, the Wi-Fi Widget enables customers to easily identify Wi-Fi equipped flights within 24 hours of departure. Launched on AA.com in November 2009, the widget provides customers the ability to check if their flights are scheduled with a Wi-Fi equipped aircraft.

"We know our customers are mobile by definition, and having information they want and need on the go can simplify and enhance the travel experience for them," said Rob Friedman, Vice President – Marketing. "The Wi-Fi Widget has been a customer favorite since it launched on AA.com, and now we're excited to see this functionality more accessible to our customers wherever they are in their travel experience."

To check for Wi-Fi access on your next flight, simply visit aa.com/wifiwidget on your mobile device within 24 hours of departure. Once on the site, enter your flight number or select your departure airport from a drop down menu to find out in seconds if your flight is scheduled to be Wi-Fi equipped.

While on board a Wi-Fi equipped flight, customers can make hotel or car reservations, check their AAdvantage® accounts, book additional flights and more – with complimentary inflight access to AA.com®. Customers can also enjoy full access to the Web, VPN, social networking sites and e-mail access for as little as $4.95 per Gogo® Inflight Internet session.

Wi-Fi is now available on American flights within the continental United States on all Boeing 767-200 aircraft and select MD80 and 737 aircraft. In August 2008, American became the first U.S. airline to launch the Gogo service. Since then, thousands of customers traveling on American aircraft have enjoyed onboard Wi-Fi service while flying throughout the United States. For more information on American's Inflight Internet offering please visit www.aa.com/wifi.

About Gogo

Gogo®, powered by Aircell, turns a commercial airplane into a Wi-Fi hotspot with true inflight Internet access. Passengers with Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones and PDAs, can surf the Web, check e-mail, instant message, access a corporate VPN and more. For more information about Gogo, please visit www.gogoinflight.com. You can also follow 'gogoInflight' on Twitter (www.twitter.com/gogoinflight) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/gogoinflight).

About American Airlines

American Airlines, American Eagle and AmericanConnection® serve 250 cities in 40 countries with, on average, more than 3,400 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 900 aircraft. American's award-winning website, AA.com®, provides users with easy access to check and book fares, plus personalized news, information and travel offers. American Airlines is a founding member of the oneworld® Alliance, which brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business, enabling them to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own. Together, its members serve nearly 700 destinations in more than 130 countries and territories. American Airlines, Inc. and American Eagle Airlines, Inc. are subsidiaries of AMR Corporation. AmericanAirlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AA.com, We know why you fly and AAdvantage are trademarks of American Airlines, Inc. (NYSE: AMR)

AmericanAirlines®  We know why you fly®

Current AMR Corp. releases can be accessed on the Internet.

The address is http://www.aa.com

SOURCE American Airlines

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RELATED LINKS
http://www.aa.com
http://www.gogoinflight.com

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Is A Facebook Events RSVP Widget Imminent? - AllFacebook

As we alluded to yesterday, we are expecting (or at least hoping) Facebook to roll out a revamped events Platform .

With that Platform we are also expecting Facebook to offer event products that enable even producers to expand their marketing efforts beyond the Facebook website.

If Facebook rolls out a new events service, as we expect, that offering could include an events RSVP widget, something which we’ve previously suggested would be an incredibly useful feature. Most significantly, it would help turn Facebook into a central events Platform for all event promoters. An open Platform would also ensure that users continue to engage with Facebook, despite the soon-to-be-released Google Me which Google is hoping to use to take on Facebook’s growing influence.

While Google is probably too little, too late, an open Facebook events platform could most definitely ensure the company’s continued success. While we can only guess what Facebook is preparing to announce, the inclusion of a Facebook events RSVP widget would be extremely valuable. Imagine if the next time you wrote a post about your upcoming party, you could just quickly embed a button which says “RSVP Now!” That single feature would change the online events space permanently.

View the original article here

Intouch Solutions announces social sharing widget - PharmaLive.com (press release)

Intouch Solutions announces social sharing widget

Overland Park, Kan. (September 21, 2010) – Intouch Solutions® Inc., a digital marketing agency servicing the pharmaceutical industry, announced today the launch of its share»send»save product, a social sharing widget designed especially for the heavily regulated pharmaceutical industry. With this regulated environment as its focus, share»send»save offers a key feature that other social sharing widgets do not: control over the content that is shared. The share»send»save widget enables the sharing of content through social networks, sending links via e-mail, and saving or bookmarking information to Web browsers.

Recent events in the pharmaceutical industry — including a letter the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent to a major pharmaceutical company concerning the use of a social sharing widget — have heightened awareness of the need for control over how social sharing applications work on pharmaceutical-sponsored websites. Pharmaceutical companies must work diligently to control messages around their products to ensure drug advertising is responsible and in compliance with FDA regulations.

The share»send»save widget provides enhanced control in a number of ways:

Allows site owners to choose what channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are active Enables consistent sharing of only specified content and images across channels Ensures the same content is shared across channels Provides the option of an interstitial “you are leaving this site” disclaimer Keeps standard metadata intact for optimal search engine optimization Shares a shortened URL Sends secure e-mails that can include detailed safety information Offers enhanced tracking, analytics and customization options

share»send»save does this without collecting personally identifiable data or displaying third-party advertising, which can be a problem with the free tools currently available.

“Social sharing is important for any industry, and pharmaceutical marketing is no exception. The difference is the special challenges this industry faces when it comes to regulation of content and promotion,” said Faruk Capan, CEO, Intouch Solutions. “There are many ways to share content on a site, but few solutions offer site owners the ability to control how that content is shared. This innovative tool helps provide our clients peace of mind.”

Statistics show that 47 percent of American social media users are on branded pharmaceutical websites to learn about health care or pharmaceutical products¹. Including share»send»save on a website empowers visitors to share approved content to social connections, spurring online conversations without exposing site owners to unnecessary risk.

About share»send»save

Developed by Intouch Solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, the share»send»save sharing widget gives users the ability to share content on social networks, send site links to friends or colleagues, and save websites to their browser bookmarks. Unique features allow pharmaceutical companies to capture the power of social marketing without sacrificing brand integrity, sharing incorrect information, or taking other unnecessary regulatory risks.

For more information about share»send»save, including its privacy policy and terms of service, please visit www.sharesendsave.com For background on the risks of social sharing within the pharmaceutical industry, see the Intouch Solutions analysis on its blog at http://tiny.cc/socialsharingrisks

About Intouch Solutions

Founded in 1999, Intouch Solutions® Inc. is a privately-held, full-service pharmaceutical digital marketing agency headquartered in the Kansas City area with a branch location in Chicago. Intouch specializes in high-quality, cost-effective, custom digital solutions for the pharmaceutical and health care industries. Contact Intouch at getintouch@intouchsol.com or visit them on the Web at www.intouchsol.com.

¹ROI Research, “S-Net: A Study in Consumers’ Use of Social Media (Wave III)” commissioned by Performics, provided to eMarketer, June 8, 2010.

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For Marketing, Twitter Crushes Facebook - PC World

Facebook makes up 78 percent of traffic among all social network sites and micro-blogging site Twitter accounts for 5 percent, but on average "tweets" with embedded links get 19 clicks while Facebook's shared links only get three clicks, according to a study by SocialTwist.

The marketing firm, which offers viral social media marketing campaigns, analyzed more than a million shared links through its Tell-a-Friend widget that lets people share information on Websites. SocialTwist measured success by a clickthrough rate, a term for the number of clicks on a link that takes a user to a specific destination.

 

The survey yielded other surprises, such as that MySpace still has 15 percent of social media market share.

If you're using Twitter or Facebook to reach out to customers, here's what each service has going for and against it.

Twitter Pros:

165 million registered users

There are 165 million registered users and 100 million messages sent a day from Twitter, according to Bloomberg. Never mind that Twitter execs hope to get a billion users without a real plan -- that's all bravado anyway -- there are still millions of users out there

New Twitter Layout is Better

The new Twitter interface offers a split-screen and view pane that lets users share video and photos from at least 16 different media providers like Flickr, YouTube, and TwitPic. Now, instead of repeatedly tweeting a message in the hopes of attracting attention from different people at different times, a business can share a video of its new developments and know there's a good chance that someone might see it in Twitter's detailed pane.

It's for the Social-Media Savvy

Twitter, which recently began offering promoted tweets for $100,000 a day, is a different kind of beast than Facebook. If you doubt this, then take a look at who inhabits the "Twitterverse". Just in my followers alone, I count scores of social media professionals. I also watch what they do, because one of the best things about following people is learning how to use Twitter better.

Third-Party Applications

You can use Twitter solely through its Website, or with a third-party client that offers such features as scheduled tweets, searches, paneled views of lists, or other Twitter identities and metrics.

Twitter Cons:

It's a Cocktail Party

A social media maven once told me that Twitter is like a cocktail party. People flitter around, listening to conversations and partaking in ones they find interesting -- but it's off to the next, new thing within minutes. You can't blame users; they have a veritable buffet of information and conversations to follow. Coming back to a cocktail conversation an hour later will get you a lot of "Huh?" and "What?" reactions. That also gets the same response on Twitter.

Security Issues

Although some of the security issues have lessened with the new Twitter revamp, malware can be spread easily when users click on unknown, shortened URLs planted by those looking to spread viruses or download account information.

Dependability

Twitter's Fail Whale, the icon used to explain its down and over capacity, is well-known and derided endlessly. And while its dependability has been better lately, Twitter still has frequent service outages and hiccups.

Facebook Pros:

600 million users

Facebook is now more popular than Google, not really a surprise when you realize that users can not only update statuses and check on friends, but also play games, take quizzes and generally waste a lot of time.

Dependability

Although Facebook apologized last month for a 2.5-hour outage, that's nothing compared to the legendary, frequent appearance of Twitter's Fail Whale.

Tools

Facebook users have been able to use a number of shared multimedia tools from almost its inception, including video, links, photos, quizzes, and news. Twitter only recently began offering video and photos on its site.

Facebook Cons:

General Audience of All Backgrounds

Facebook's "pro" is also its "con". It has so many people on it -- moms, children, grandparents, millennials, and baby boomers -- that it may be hard for businesses to find the right audience without some expert navigation.

The Clicks Aren't There.

While a business can get noticed on Facebook, chances are it will have do so with a broad campaign connecting with a larger numbers of users than it takes to get the same amount of attention on a more focused medium such as Twitter.

More Like a Dorm Than a Cocktail Party

On Twitter, generally people are only interested in what you're talking about in the last half-hour or so. If we take that to be true, then Facebook is like the floor of a college dormitory or a cruise ship, where users may see each other every day but don't become something akin to friends until weeks or months later. It may be a place to bare your soul, but not the place for a hard sell. This is where your social media efforts must be placed for the long-term.

Which to Use?

It's not surprising that Twitter is the tool of choice for many in marketing because it offers more return on investment, less time for more exposure, a quick-hit approach to conversations, a more savvy population, and few distractions from the endless streams of information.

Any businessperson on Facebook should know that it is competing with the same games, quizzes, and attention from loved ones that brought users there in the first place.

Because the two social sites are so different, businesses should know they will have to evolve with each medium and establish campaigns that fit each of the service's strengths.

Reach or follow Barbara E. Hernandez on Twitter: @bhern.

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Tell a Friend Widget and Viral Marketing Gone Wild

Viral marketing is only viral if there is a way in which people can tell their friends about your business. That is where a "tell a friend" widget comes in.

With a "tell a friend" widget, visitors are able to plug in information about their friends, such as their names and their email addresses. This enables their friend to come to your site. They may not have come there otherwise, so it is important to use your visitors to bring in others just like a magnet.

When someone "tells a friend," an email is sent to the friend that says, "So and so wanted you to see this" or "so and so is on this site, you can be too." It is something simple like that. As a matter of fact, you have probably interacted with one of those widgets before. Perhaps you joined a social networking site and a box popped up asking you to tell your friends so that they can be members too. This is the same exact thing and you know that it is something that is very effective.

What this does is this convinces the friend to come to your site and see what you have going on. They can also sign up for newsletters and email updates so that you can market to them. This is a great opportunity for you to grow your list, therefore growing the number of people you can have passing the word around about your business.

So the tell a friend widget is a very valuable tool. Not only are you marketing to the people who visit your site anyway, but you have your visitors bringing others to your site through the tell a friend widget. When these friends start getting your viral emails, they will pass those on. So your regular 10 visitors can turn into 20. You then have 20 people you can market to. That 20 people can very easily turn into 200 if they forward your emails. That 200 can then turn into 2000. The list goes on and on. But when this happens, that is a tell a friend widget gone wild.

Try using a Viral Marketing Widget [http://www.trafficjinn.com] or Tell A Friend Widget [http://www.trafficjinn.com] to drive a boat load of free friend referred traffic to your website facebook style. Dr. Knox Grandison is a full time internet marketer and part time physician and has been for over 10 years.

Wordpress Widgets

What is it?

Although the word widget might look a bit funny it has become a commonly used term, especially among bloggers utilizing the world-famous Wordpress software.

The term 'Wordpress widgets' is applied to any user-friendly sidebar function in Wordpress themes including such elements as search box, meta-tags, RSS feed links, recent posts, categories, etc. which can be arranged by a blogger into the blog's sidebar in any way they want.

The majority of modern Wordpress themes are widget-ready, i.e. users can modify them without having to change the code. You just log in as the administrator and drag the elements you want to the sidebar adding and rearranging them whenever you wish.

Wordpress is in itself a very easy-to-use blogging application, and with the addition of widgets it has become even more user-friendly providing for a most pleasant blogging experience.

Where to find

There are numerous websites offering widget-ready themes for Wordpress, but the most extensive collection of them can be found at the official website of Wordpress. You will be offered a widest selection of blog templates arranged by color, width, sidebars on the left and on the right side, rounded and unrounded corners and so on.

Some of the Most Popular Wordpress Widgets

There are many widgets for Wordpress. You will find some of them more useful than the others and by experimenting with them you can come up with a most useful widget set that will make blogging even more fun. Your choice will depend on your personal needs and taste, but there are certain widgets that are so popular within the blogging community that they've become a 'must have' for almost every blogger.

ExecPHP

It is a text-box widget that allows inserting PHP code into your sidebar.php and executing it by means of an easy click-and-copy operation rather them having to modify it manually.

IM Online

This Wordpress widget allows you to display your online status to your blog readers with the help of instant messaging services such as MSN, Google Talk, Skype and others. Thus you can easily let your readers know when they can contact you.

With the dramatic increase in Wordpress users it has become rather hard to make your blog stand out against thousands of other blogs built with the same platform. However, the addition of widget-ready themes creates a unique opportunity to develop unique blog designs with just a couple of click-and-drag operations.

Dashboard Software - What is It?

Before knowing how to choose the best dashboard software, its better if we know what dashboard is. The foremost dashboard was designed by Mac and the main purpose for designing this was to give an alternative to computer users. This option helped the user to open an application by just a click. It helps you save a great deal of time as well as efforts to search a program you need. With widgets, you can locate the program you need. For instance, if you want to check the international and local weather, or if you are looking for a world clock, WiFi strength, calculator etc. you can use the appropriate widget. Moreover, the dashboard simply hangs about your desktop. You can simply drag and drop the widgets from dashboard if you want to set it. You can also do the opposite. But you should always keep in mind that dashboards are meant only for small programs. It is good if you keep the widgets in the dashboard only. Now you don't have to sit and manually open the programs or applications you wish to run. Just click and its done!

Widgets help you to do all the tasks quickly that are quite tedious and complicated for any user to do it manually. Google search widget is one of the best widgets as it opens the browser and conducts the searches accordingly.

Though there may be several helpful tips to choose the right dashboard software, but you should check your computer as well as the operating system installed in your computer. This will help you to access the software that works for your system. You need to make a sensible selection as it is not as simple as going to the market and picking one that you see. You need to look at it in detail.

You will find a variety of dashboard software to choose from but if you really want to choose one that is perfect for your system, you need to access the work that is regularly done by you. Ask the two important things, do I really need this software? Do I use small programs and applications? If you really need one, then this software will help you greatly. Now you need to check which operating system you work on. Initially, dashboard software was available for Mac systems only, but today a lot of Windows operators are happy as dashboard software can be installed in their systems too. Though you will find dashboard software that operates on both Mac as well as Windows, but you don't have to buy dashboard software if you use Mac. However, dashboard software is already installed for Mac operating systems. But if you don't use Mac, you will surely need dashboard software to save your time and efforts.

Moreover, you should know that there are some widgets that may not be available for Windows as in case of Mac. Most of them are yet to be transferred. And the web developers have assured that all the widgets that are available in Mac, will soon be available for Windows too! You will soon have greater options of widgets in your system too.

Know more about dashboard software for your system at emanio.com.

What Are Interactive Apps and Widgets?

We live in a world today in which internet has exploded tons of information which can be accessed with the help of certain man made application programs by the names of interactive apps and widgets.

Interactive apps essentially speed up business processes to a great extent. These are development tools with which a developer creates internet applications. Some examples for interactive apps are Flash, Adobe etc. which help to increase web traffic to specific sites portraying state of the art technology.

In addition there are interactive apps that can be customized according to the needs of the user to share business intelligence. These multipurpose apps are called Dashboard applications. These contain tabs that help to share reports on any network.

Interactive apps and widgets have in fact brought the world closer through the World Wide Web. With the help of these online applications, it is now possible to see and learn the contents of any extensive course from any institution or university of your choice located in any part of the world.

Widgets are applications into which chunks of codes have been embedded into. They can be placed in any third party site which allows the user authorship rights. You can locate plenty of them on social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut etc. Suppose you want stock updates on your homepage in your website, a stock update widget may be placed on a web page and clicking on it will get you the latest in stock prices directly from a stock market site. It's also possible to access the same data from another location by simply copying the embed code and pasting in the site of your choice.

There are mainly two types of widgets namely web widgets and desktop widgets. It's the web widgets that are extensively used in SEO processes not to leave out back link campaigns. Widgets are developed using software programs such as JavaScript, HTML, Flash etc and function as downloadable applications. They are generated by widget engines like Widget Box, Snack Tools etc. Desk top widgets on the other hand can be embedded in local computers only. For example: - Apple Computer Widget.

Today there are numerous widget companies offering various management tools for controlling these embedded applications. Their use has become so widespread that you can even find them inside mobiles which are known as mobile web widgets.

Interactive Apps & Widgets on your web page can greatly improve your traffic and subscribers. Click here to know more about Interactive Apps & Widgets

Blogging Software Comparison - A Comparison of the Top Four Blog Software Choices

I have already addressed the question of website vs. blog in another article, but is any blog suitable for building your coaching business? I'm going to explain here what the basic differences of the major blog software options available and give you my perspective on what I believe to be the best option and why.

LiveJournal: This is where I posted my first blog which was more like an online journal for me. There is a cost to use and host at LiveJournal. Customization is limited and complicated for the average user. The addition of simple programming for implementing marketing strategies is also limited and complicated. I suppose it serves a purpose in the social networking but I don't consider it a strong choice for business use.

Typepad: This was my next stop as I learned the benefits of blogging for my business. I actually liked this blogging software, but there are some of the same limitations with Typepad as with LiveJournal. There is a monthly fee for hosting and using the Typepad blog. Customization is a little easier with Typepad but still very limited. They make nice use of widgets that the blogger can add to enhance what the blog "does" in terms of marketability and monetization.

Blogger: this is easy blog software to use. While I have an account / profile there I don't actively post in a blog there. Apparently Google, who owns Blogger, does allow user to post advertising (which is important to the monetization of your blog). But Blogger, which is hosted and operated by Google, has a frequent planned & unplanned outages - downtime, which is extremely inconvenient if you're trying to run a business. I am also told that it doesn't take much to "exceed the bandwidth" and have too many visitors to your blog.

There are probably several more less popular options that because they are less well known there are limited resources for customization and upgraded programming to make your blog more "powerful" in terms of what it can do for your business.

In my opinion, and in the opinion of some of the most popular bloggers on the Internet - WordPress is by far the most developed software platform for blogging for business.

WordPress - WordPress is software which can be operated for a community hosted site at WordPresss.com or you can self-host on your own domain.

Here's the biggest differences between the community or WordPress.com hosted blog software. At WordPress.com there is no software to install - just pick a free theme and start writing posts.

does not allow ads - such as Google AdSense for the blogger's account
does not allow programming for lead capture forms
adds links to other peoples blogs at the end of your posts instead of other relevant posts within your blog
limited customization available - many free themes but no truly custom premium themes can be used.
IMHO - Self-hosted WordPress blogs are the ONLY way to go if your blog is a serious part of your overall marketing plan. At sites like MySmallBusinessWebsite.com, the blog installation is done for you, however you do need to customize it...but more on that in another article.

the blogger has full control over customization of blog - much of it is simple for the average user to control with minimal explanation
hundreds or possibly thousands of widgets and plug-ins have been and are being developed that are completely free to add to your blog
tools are available for attracting traffic to the blog, capturing leads and engage in with visitors to your blog.
the blogger can place ads on the blog with out worry of being shut down like other community hosted blog software.
In a future article I will explain "widgets & plugins" - what are they, what to use and why. Is your blog a strategic part of building your coaching business online? Do you devote enough time and attention to developing content that attracts your ideal prospect?

Let me invite you to begin educating yourself with my 6-week e-course of only two emails a week that lays out a simple, yet powerful action plan to harness the power of Internet Marketing to build a lucrative coaching business, and create passive streams of income at http://www.BuildingYourCoachingBusiness.com

Will Widgets Invade Your Desktop?

Computers have an interesting way of stealing your time in small increments.

What do I mean?

Ten minutes of spam sorting per day equates to over 60 hours a year deleting email.

Five minutes per day spent looking for your to-do list comes out at over 30 hours a year of unproductive time.

Thought to represent the saviors of our lives, computers actually eat up our time in tiny, almost imperceptible bytes.

As the computer world grows increasingly complex, anyone or anything that removes clutter from your desktop (or your mind), save you time, or eliminate effort rates a closer look.

The answer to increased productivity and micro-time management may not lie in "bigger and better", but in "smaller and specialized."

Widgets, small specialized programs that typically run in the background while you do other things on your computer, may just hold the key to claiming back those lost seconds and minutes that add up over time.

Instead of trying to represent the "end all and be all" of software programs, "widgets" typically solve one - and only one - problem.

Whether it's managing a to-do list, computer performance, activity tracking or managing your calendar, widgets can solve the little problems that add up quickly.

Side Note: As always, when installing unfamiliar software from the Internet, backup all sensitive files, update your anti-virus, turn on your spyware detector software and generally heighten your awareness of what's taking place on your computer.

Log on to http://widgets.yahoo.com for a growing library of free widgets you can download and use right away.

However, to use the widgets you must install Yahoo!'s Widget Engine, which makes the whole process a bit cumbersome.

I would much prefer each widget stand on its own as an individual installation.

Also, Yahoo!'s organization of their widget library leaves a lot to be desired as it takes quite some digging to uncover some of the real gems.

To their credit, Yahoo! seems to be actively promoting third-party development of widgets which they in turn help distribute.

Log on to http://desktop.google.com and see Google's answer to widgets with their "Google Gadgets," a collection of handy little apps designed to help you out with little tasks.

Probably the best offering for increased productivity is the Google Calendar V2 (though it apparently carries no reminder feature).

Like Yahoo!, you can't run the gadgets without Google's software installed.

Though most of the widgets you'll find at these sites are not business related, they represent a trend toward micro-specialization in software development.

Solving one problem for a small group of people (niche audience) instead of trying to solve every problem for a huge group of people -like major software developers - makes a lot of sense.

I believe this represents a trend that will spill over into the mainstream once a viable profit model develops.

Once people figure out how to make money with these "widgets" or "gadgets," you'll see an explosion of mini-software applications performing a myriad of tasks people wonder how they previously ever got along without them.

Copyright (c) 2007 Jim Edwards

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs... Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? "Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links... without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here =>http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

How to Create Desktop Widgets With Yahoo

This will be my first foray into the world of widgets. I am more of a traditional programmer and I use javascript under extreme duress. Therefore I was never attracted toward the field of widgets or gadgets for that matter. If you want to have a look as to what are widgets please visit yahoo site.

Moving on to requirements for this kind of development

Widget engine, Yahoo calls it Konfabulator. (don't ask me why, I have no idea). Get Yahoo SDK Download SDK. After the download just install it and you are ready to go.

The secondary requirement is a good text editor, Yahoo uses XML and javascript to design widgets thus, I would suggest finding a good XML and Javascript editor. If you are confused please download the visual studio free edition, i think it will be sufficient for your requirements. On this point I am open to suggestions.

Download the reference manual from the Yahoo site. Click here to download a zip which has the manual in pdf format.

Image editor, you will need a good image editor to design your widget backgrounds and the UI in general thus please buy or get an image editor which is as good as Gimp or Photoshop. The following list has been provided by my readers thus I have no idea how good these softwares are but I know that these are free.

Photoscape Download

Gimp for windows Download

Serif PhotoPlus Download

Beside these software's you need to have basic understanding of XML and Javascript. These tutorials will not try to teach you either of these two subjects.

The main file which is executed has an extension of kon. This you say is like the exe file under the windows environment. The kon file is not a standalone exe but a file which is used by the konfublator. Once the Konfabulator engine is installed on your system as soon as you double click on any kon file the engine will start and the file will be executed. All these steps will be outline in my video tomorrow on the you tube. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a line

Creating the background

For your widget lets build a small background graphic file. I am not trying to create anything complicated to begin with thus the background file will be an image of 200*200 pixels. The base color is transparent thus it will not obstruct anything and there are three- four shapes. The name of the file is back1.png

Widget Background

Creating the program

Lets fire up our favourite text editor and create a file called helloworld.kon. The basic syntax is like a xml file. therefore it must start with the following line just like an XML file

The First Line Of An XMl File

These files have the basic element as Therefore let us create the basic skeleton of the file

Basic Widget Skeleton

Every widget element must have a window element inside it therefore we must define a window which would be the visible portion of your widget. As we all know every window must have a name, title, height and width in the same way we must define these attributes. Again it is upto to you if you want these as attributes of the window element or child of window element. Personally I prefer the latter.

For the background Image create any graphics and store it in png format

As you can see we have defined all the properties the last property that we must add is the image property which will show the background of the window. Lets put in the image element.

RSS1My First Widget400300true

One important point is the files should be in the same path, because we cannot be sure as to the file system of the user thus if you save your widget in a folder called mywidgets then save the image either there or make a sub-directory such as images or resources to save the image files.

As is customary there must be a hello world message somewhere, thus lets put in the text, in yahoo widget this is also an element called text and attributes like data, color,font etc.

Text Element Inserted

By default the text will be printed on the extreme left i.e 0,0 position. If we want to move the text we must give the voffset and hoffset values. Basically these values will move the text vertically and horizontally from the 0,0 position by the amount of pixels you specify. I have placed the text 100 pixels down and 50 pixels to the right.

RSS1My First Widget400300trueResources/widget.pngNDTV Top News5010016#ff4499

Lets save this and try to execute it. If everything has been installed properly and the file has been written properly, your Desktop should show a security message, just click use widget.

There you have it, your first widget, if you want to close it just left click on it and choose close widget.

Tomorrow I will show you how to put some functionality in this widget, hopefully I will have a video ready too.

You can read more about widgets and gadgets at my blog http://best-news-site.com/ or watch my videos on youtube search for MrBestProfessor videos

Enhance Web Experience With Social Web Widget Generator

Put simply, a widget is a standalone application which is often embedded in third party sites. A web widget is a portable chunk of code installed and executed in a web page by the end user. It does not require any additional compilation and often provides information in a concise manner. Common widgets come in the form of tickers, clocks, boxes, and similar formats. With the help of a social web widget generator, almost anyone can generate a social web widget to link their social presence on the web.

End users use widgets to enhance their personal experiences of the web or to attract visitors to their sites. Working in a manner similar to that of an iPhone, widgets add stand alone applications to blogs, profiles, and community pages. Individuals often use widgets to link their personal blogs, photographs, websites, presence on social networking sites, and all other similar entries on the Internet.

With the growing popularity of the Internet, many social networking sites have cropped up with people maintain multiple profiles as well as same profiles on several sites. A social web widget generator will generate widgets particularly with respect to these individuals.

What are the advantages provided by widget generator for the social web? Let us say an individual is a techie who maintains accounts with several social networking sites such as Orkut, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace. He posts certain pictures on his Orkut profile but would like all his contacts on the web too view these. Or he posts an entry in his blog spot which he intends to share with all his contacts. He need not invite hundreds of contacts separately. With the help of a social web widget, he embeds all the links on each and every account.

What is even more interesting, he can choose the color, design, and appearance of this widget, that is, he can completely control what everything is displayed for the visitors. This individual need not be a software professional to do all this! He only needs to generate a personalized widget through a social web widget generator. Many prominent sites generate widgets with links to poplar networks and blogs, including Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogger, WordPress, YouTube, Flickr, Linkedin, Bebo, AIM, Classmates, Digg, Flixter, fotolog, Fubar, Goodreads, Hi5, LinkedIn, Livespaces, Photobuckets, Orkut, and website links to the personal web pages of the individual.

Widgets can be generated for numerous web addresses. The more advanced social web widget generator will also provide a Color picker to make the widgets more attractive. Widgets are used to leverage online presences of the user, such as blogs, websites, and social networking accounts. For the same person, the widget gives several links. While one may lead to a personal blog sharing the blogger's thoughts, another may be for professional reasons, offering special discount coupons for a product, and still another may lead to personal photographs.

Widgets are also an important viral marketing tool. Popular designs of widgets are also given away free by companies to increase awareness about their products. In such cases, too, a social web widget generator is used to embed marketing messages in the designed widgets.

Read more about Social Web Widget Generator by visiting the provided link.

Tips on How to Choose Dashboard Software

There are so many useful tips on how to choose dashboard software. You have to look at your computer and the operating system you have in order for you to assess the dashboard that works for you. You cannot just go out and immediately grab the first dashboard you see. You have to look at the much bigger picture.

Before we tell you the tips on choosing the best dashboard, you will need to know what a dashboard is and how it works. The first dashboard was created by Mac for its operating systems. Its main purpose was to give an option to the computer user. That option was to open small applications with just a click. Basically, it eliminates the tedious part of looking and finding the program you need to open. You will be able to locate those small programs called widgets on the dashboard. Some examples of widgets are the following: stock quotes, world clock, local and international weather, calculator, and WiFi strength.

The dashboard just hangs around your desktop. You can set it up by dragging and dropping widgets from the dashboard to the desktop or you can also do the reverse. Now, remember that dashboards are for small programs only. They will not work on big programs. The advisable thing to do here is to keep the widgets in the dashboard. It will save you a lot of time and effort because you do not have to manually open the applications you would like to run. However, if you put them on your desktop, you will have to manually open them.

Widgets are capable of so many things. They can perform task that are otherwise too complicated or tedious for the user to do manually. A good example is the Google search widget. What it does is that it opens the browser and performs searches accordingly.

There are many dashboards to choose from but the best thing to do before choosing software is to assess the work that you normally do. Ask yourself, do you really need the dashboard? Do you often make use of small applications? If the answer is yes, then dashboard will greatly help you. The next thing to consider is the operating system that you have. The dashboard was only available to Mac computers before but quite recently, it has been introduced to Windows, making a lot of people happy. Although there are dashboard applications that can work both on Windows and Mac, you do not have to necessarily purchase database software if you are a Mac user. It is already part of the Mac operating system. Dashboard software has already been incorporated into the Mac operating system itself. However, if you are not a Mac user, then you will definitely need this software.

You also have to remember that not all widgets available to Mac are also available to Windows. Many of them are still in the process of transfer. But developers have promised that all of the Mac widgets will also be available to Windows users in the near future. Maybe it would be best that you wait a little longer so that you will have a lot of options to choose dashboard software.

If you are interested in Choose Dashboard Software, check this web-site to learn more about choose kpi software.

How to Integrate Dashboard Software Widgets Into Your Mac OS X

The Dashboard software system is designed to make the user's experience in making use of the Mac OS X more enjoyable and convenient with the addition of applications, known as widgets, into the main screen for easy accessibility. But before you can make full use of the program, you must know and understand how to integrate Dashboard software widgets into the system first.

This system is meant to give you, the user, easy and efficient access to the different applications that are installed into your Mac OS. Although these applications are automatically installed into your operating system from the time it is programmed into your computer, these do not automatically appear on the main layer after installing the Dashboard. Thus, you must first manually install and arrange your applications before you can use them through the same.

First are the basics. The applications that are to be used with the Dashboard are called widgets. This is a small-sized program that functions in a variety of ways, such as letting you know the time, the date, the weather forecast, or even stock market trends. These can be found with a lot of other functions. There are also widgets out there that can be used to play mini-games when you feel too stressed to continue working on your computer. All of these are kept and arranged in your Dashboard, which functions much like the Desktop of the Windows operating systems. To display all your widgets, all you have to do is to click on the Dashboard icon. This will reveal to you all the widgets that you have installed and arranged according to your preference.

You can download widgets off the Internet for use with your Dashboard. Just search for them with the use of search engines, such as Yahoo and Google. Once downloaded, you must locate the file in your system. The usual place where these are saved is the main screen. These widgets will usually appear as compressed files that may require you to have decompression software or application on your computer to access it. Once decompressed, the widget will usually install itself on your computer system.

Once installed, you must double click on the icon of the widget. Doing so will open up your Dashboard, with it asking you if you want to keep the widget. Clicking on the keep button will place your widget on the Dashboard, ready to be used. The next step to do is to customize your widget. This can be done by bringing up the Dashboard and clicking the manage widgets button. This is shaped like a plus sign and is usually located at the bottom left corner of the main screen. You can now customize them by placing your location, zip code, time, and such other information that will help your widget function in real time.

To integrate dashboard software widgets into your Mac operating system is to enhance the capability of your computer as a whole. Just make sure that you have the minimum software and hardware requirements to run the Dashboard and the widgets and you should be good to go.

If you are interested in Integrate Dashboard Software, check this website to learn more about integrate KPI utility.

How to Use Widgets

People are always looking for ways to advertise online. It helps to keep them competitive and also helps them to generate addition revenue for their business. Now there's an additional way to cash in. It's in the form of widgets.

A widget is a software application that is placed inside webpages. They are distinct because the applications are rather small. They help with newsfeeds and social networking websites. They have become some of the little darlings of social networking.

People thrive on these for additional income and are constantly looking for them to put on their webpages. Advertisers have caught on as to how popular these small applications are. This is good for them because as they are displayed, visitors can be entertained and advertisers can get revenue along with the website owner.

Widgets can be found on social networking websites such as Facebook and Open Social. The visitors are the ones that keep the applications going, despite the fact that they are created by developers.

There are two ways that they can become popular: either by being the application that is used the most or the one that has the best quality. In this aspect, the brand name is irrelevant in the sense that the viral marketing aspect is more important. It's imperative that the word gets out to as many people as possible. This will help or sink the survival of the application.

If you're using these, a good thing about them is that with WordPress, it's not necessary to make alterations to the coding of your theme. You can use a drag-and-drop method which helps to index the blogs easier.

To download the plug-ins from WordPress, there are detailed instructions available to show you how to do it. In the process of setting up your applications, there are some things that you need to remember. These things can help you stand out and be more profitable:

o Use applications that are visitor-friendly.

o Have a strategy for virally marketing the applications.

o Find out how visitors like the applications.

o The key ingredient is to communicate; it doesn't matter how much you advertise, if you're not effective in getting the word out, then it won't work.

Having these strategies in place will help visitors to trust you more and continue to come back to your website more often.

Rebecca Star is a custom web designer consultant and creator. For more information about her custom web design creations, please visit http://www.MegaStarMedia.com