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Roy Tanck 's Flickr Widget requires Flash Player 9 or better. Get this widget at roytanck.com If you enjoyed using Blogumus - the animated flash-based widget to display your blog labels - then I'm sure you'll love Roy Tanck 's latest widget creation: an animated, cloud style Flickr widget ! You can see an example of this in action on the left which uses my Flickr Photostream. Roy's widget is very easy to customize and add to your blog. Simply visit the Flickr Widget page and use the form to add your Flickr photostream feed URL, then choose the dimensions and background color for your widget. Once you're done, press the "Generate code snippet" button to be presented with a preview of your widget and the code. You can then paste this code into an HTML/JavaScript widget in your sidebar, or even directly into a blog post (as I have done here). Roy Tanck created the original WP-Cumulus widget upon which my Blogumus widget is based. He has done a f...

After posting about Roy Tanck's animated Flickr widget, I realized that I'd never actually written up a tutorial for the simple Flickr Photostream widget which I use in many of my premium templates. This version of the Flickr Photostream is a static widget designed to display thumbnails of your most recent Flickr uploads, and can be added quickly to your Blogger layout using a one-click installer. It's an ideal solution of you prefer a simpler method to display your Flickr photos which does not slow down page-loading time. You can see an example of how this widget could appear below: www. flick r .com To add this widget to your Blogger blog, you will need to have your Flickr user or group ID which may look something like this: 8191003@N02 The simplest way you get your Flickr ID is to use idGettr (opens in a new window), where you paste the URL of your Flickr Photostream in the box so idGettr can discover your ID for you. Once you have your Flickr ID you can use ...

Over the past few weeks, I've been working with Bloggers improved API for Gadgets and have now completed work on several useful gadgets which can be installed with just a few clicks. I've found that the Gadget API offers a much better interface to the end-user than HTML/Javascript widgets (although it takes me far longer to create Gadgets than widgets!). While they are a little more difficult to create, I think the end-product is worth the effort: Gadgets can be added from within the Blogger dashboard (so we don't need to use search engines, or visit the owner's site to install). Gadgets are easily customized, and can be easily reconfigured after installation The new API includes the ability to include Blogger post and comment feeds for the blog in which they are installed. Developers can ensure gadgets blend with the theme in which they are installed using "Skins" parameters. How to install Gadgets in your Blogger blog Gadgets are as easy to install ...

Tony from Engadgeteer has sent news of a great new widget developed for Blogger users: a recent posts widget which includes thumbnails from your posts . Here is a preview of how the gadget would appear in your blog (based on recent posts from ): <br><a href="http://bryandel.net/feed/feed2js2.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloggerbuster.com%2Ffeeds%2Fposts%2Fdefault%3Falt%3Drss&amp;num=3&amp;h=75&amp;html=y">View RSS feed</a><br> The gadget is very easy to install in your blog: simply visit the widget generator page and edit the settings as required. You can preview your feed and then add it to your blog sidebar using the "Add to Blogger" button on the top right of the page. Thanks Tony for letting me know about this widget!

Since Blogger updated the API for gadgets, I've been hard at work creating new and useful gadgets for Blogger users. My first two successful gadgets made use of the google.blog function in order to retrieve and parse post and comment feeds for the blog in which they are installed. These gadgets are now available for installation through the Blogger gadget directory and have even been featured on Blogger's official Featured Gadgets blog ! These Recent Posts and Recent Comments are very easy to install: simply follow the links for the gadget you would like to add, and choose how many posts/comments you would like to display: When you press "Update" you will be presented with an example of how the gadget will appear in your blog, and can then proceed to save your gadget. Recent posts with thumbnails Aneesh from Blogger Plugins has created a wonderful "Recent posts with thumbnails" widget which displays the media:thumbnail for each post. This is ...

Since it's launch back in 2006, Twitter has become a leading pioneer in the world of social media. Bloggers in particular find this service an invaluable tool for syndication, news stories and community conversation. For this post, I have rounded up 16 of the most useful tools, tips and free resources to help you get the most out of Twitter through your Blogger powered blog. Display your Latest Tweets Visitors to your blog may also enjoy reading your Tweets, particularly if they are of relevance to your blog's niche subject. Here is a selection of the best tools for displaying Twitter updates in your Blogger layout: The Official Twitter Badges Twitter provides an animated "Profile" badge which you can use to display your latest updates as a widget in your blog layout: You can configure the size, colours and number of updates for your badge in the settings, then grab the code which can be pasted in an HTML/JavaScript widget in your Blogger layout page. Ano...

Here's something interesting I've been working on lately: a "Tagnetic Poetry" widget/add-on for Blogger. Based on Roy Tanck's Tagnetic Poetry plugin for Wordpress, this widget can be used to add interesting stylized links for label pages or other interesting posts. It uses Flash to create and display the links and their titles, and chooses a different layout each time the page is reloaded. Try refreshing this page and you'll see how this works. Here's an example of how this Tagnetic Poetry widget displays linked label tags from this blog: Tagnetic Poetry by Roy Tanck and Merel Zwart requires Flash Player 9 or better. Ideally, this widget needs lots of space and short labels/titles to display properly. The script will not display lengthy tags unless there is enough room for them to be rendered properly, so where many tags are displayed, one or two tags may be missing. So... it's not ideal, and certainly not a useful function for blogge...

Gadget directory , I've been keeping track of new submissions and developing several gadgets of my own . While Blogger's directory is searchable, I realised that many bloggers would find descriptive reviews, screenshots, developer details and installation instructions a useful addition to the brief descriptions offered in the directory listings. So I decided to create Gadgets for Blogger - a searchable directory of gadgets which have been developed specifically for the Blogger platform. Each gadget listed in this directory features: The gadget title A full description of the gadget Screenshot of the gadget in action Details of ads included in the gadget (where applicable) Contact/website details of the gadget developer (where possible)  Quick install link, to add the gadget to your blog without having to navigate to your Blogger dashboard and through various menus to locate the installation link. All gadgets listed on Gadgets for Blogger have been tested first, t...

While browsing around looking for more Blogger gadgets to add to the directory, I discovered an awesome feature offered by Google Friend Connect: the Recommended (Popular) Posts Gadget. This is a feature which I'm sure we've all been waiting for! While we have seen various implementations of popular posts gadgets in the past, I've found these are not as useful or easy to configure as I'd prefer. In contrast, the Friend Connect Recommended Gadget stable, reliable and quickly updates. Being developed and hosted by Google ensures this is unlikely to suffer issues, and once installed it's very easy for your blog readers to recommend their favourite posts. Want to see how it works? Take a look in the sidebar to see a list of posts recommended by readers, and scroll down to the bottom of this post for the button you can use to vote (this appears on every page of , so feel free to recommend any other posts you may like!). Those of you reading this in a feed r...

This issue should now be resolved. I have checked the Twitter Updates gadget (plus others) on various sites, and am now assured everything should be back to normal. I've been made aware of the issues many Blogger users are experiencing with the Twitter Updates gadget. At present, this is showing "tweets" from the user @undefined and ignores user preferences for the number of tweets to be displayed. The same issue affects some of my other gadgets too: most notably, the Flickr, Picasa, TwitPic and Juitter gadgets. As far as I can tell right now, this issue stems from a sudden, random error affecting any gadgets utilizing User Preferences. These issues do not seem to be affecting every blog in which such gadgets are installed. The Blogger Team are aware of the issue and are investigating now. I'm also testing various changes to user preferences for my gadgets to see if a different solution to registering user preferences could resolve the issue for my gadgets. ...

Example Xbox Gamercar For a recent design project I was asked if it was possible to display an Xbox Live Gamercard in a Blogger site. Thanks to this useful guidance from Jamie Huskisson I discovered it was surprisingly easy to achieve and have now created a simple Blogger gadget for gamers to easily add their own Xbox Gamertag to Blogger blogs. Add your Xbox Live Gamercard to your Blogger powered site Manually add an Xbox Gamercard Gadget to your Blogger site If you would prefer to control how your Gamercard appears, you can use the code below to add an Xbox Gamercard to your site. Be sure to replace "your_gamertag" with your Xbox Live Gamertag: <iframe src='http://gamercard.xbox.com/ your_gamertag .card' class='gamercard' width='204' height='141' scrolling='no' frameborder='0'></iframe> Notes about the Xbox Gamercard The Gamercard will only display to users who are logged into Xbox live. ...

RSS feed reader ). To make it even easier for our readers to stay in touch with our sites, the Blogger Team have developed a new, official gadget: Follow by Email . Using Feedburner technology , this new gadget offers a one-click solution for adding an email subscription form to our Blogger-powered blogs. We don't even need to sign up with Feedburner or visit the Feedburner dashboard to configure this for use in our sites! To begin using this new gadget, go to Design>Page Elements in your Blogger dashboard and click "Add a Gadget" in the section where you'd like the email form to appear. In the following menu, select "Follow by Email" from the list of default gadgets which will bring up a pop-up box like this: When setting up the Follow by Email gadget for the first time, a Feedburner Feed URL is created for you. Usually this is based on the name of your blog (so long as this feed name is not already in use). We can change the name of the fe...

Adding a Google+ badge to our Blogger templates enables readers to easily connect with our Google+ page. This can be achieved in just a few simple steps by adding a Google+ Badge gadget; it's also possible to customize the badge and change the display effect. As part of updating my Blogger template , I added a badge to the sidebar which enables readers to directly connect to the a Google+ Gadget which we can add to our Blogger layouts in just a couple of clicks. To add this gadget to your layout, click on the Layout link in the left hand side of your dashboard and choose to add a new gadget in the section where you would like it to appear. Select the Google+ Badge gadget from the list of official gadgets (this currently appears near the very top of the list. You'll need to paste in your Google+ Page ID in the appropriate section of this pop-up window, like this: Press "enter" to update the preview, and select whether you prefer a light or dark colour s...

If you are using one of Blogger's new templates, you'll notice an "Attribution" widget which appears at the very bottom of your site. This will contain details of the template designer, a "Powered by Blogger" statement, and possibly attribution for any background images you've added through the Template Designer. We can add copyright information to this gadget by editing through the Layout page in our dashboard, but by default are unable to change it's position or remove it. For various reasons, you may want to remove this gadget from your Blogger layout. For example, if you have highly customized your template so it looks nothing like the original design on which it is based, or you would prefer visitors not to know that your site is operated using Blogger's free service. Since removing the Attribution gadget is not a straightforward customization, I have developed a simple method we can use to remove this gadget and (if you choose) rep...

Over at 9Lessons I read a very helpful tutorial to add an "Invite your Facebook Friends" link to a website. I was able to modify this in order to add to a gadget which now appears in the sidebar on all pages of (beneath the Facebook Like box). If you click on this link, a box will appear on the page enabling you to invite chosen friends from your Facebook profile to visit . In this simple tutorial I'll explain how you can add this functionality to your own Blogger powered blog. Create a Bit.ly URL for your blog The first thing you'll need to do is  create a short bit.ly url for your blog . This will enable us to circumvent the requirement for a secure base URL (beginning with https which we can't natively use with Blogger). Make a note of this short bit.ly URL as you will need it when creating your app on Facebook. Create your Facebook App Now you'll need to create a Facebook Application as you'll need an appID to use in your code. V...

Since this archived post was written in 2007, web design and Blogger templates have changed immensely. The development of HTML5 and <audio> tags enable us to add music to our Blogspot websites and posts far more simply, and with improved control. In preparation for explaining how to podcast with Blogger, this tutorial explains how to easily add an HTML5 mp3/audio player to your blog posts or layout. No JavaScript, Flash or plugins are required, and with a fallback for older browsers which don't support the player. I've even created a simple form to generate basic tags for you! Adding music to your Blogspot site has never been so easy! Basic HTML5 Audio Tags Explained The <audio> tag is a new feature of HTML5 which we can use to natively embed audio playback in our sites. It is supported in Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari, and can be set to play the linked audio file automatically (autoplay) or loop if required. Here...