currybetdotnet Widgets archive

Euro 2008: The websites - France & Italy
Since the Euro2008 draw was made, probably the most keenly anticipated fixture has been tonight's replay of the epic 2006 World Cup Final between France and Italy - but few could have predicted that at the end of tonight there was the certainty that one would be eliminated from the tournament - and the possibility that both could go. I've been conducting a review of the FA websites belonging to the countries taking part in Euro2008, and today I'm...

Read the full post - Published June 17, 2008 in Euro2008, Football, Web, Widgets

Castrol's Euro 2008 Performance Index not performing on Google AdWords
As part of their sponsorship of Euro 2008, Castrol have developed a website which produces real-time performance statistics during the matches. Here, for example, are the figures from the Netherlands' obliteration of France last night. It looks like a very nice site - even if they can't spell 'defence' the European way. There is a downloadable Castrol widget for the tournament as well. It is built using Adobe's AIR, so in theory it should be cross-platform. I didn't download...

Read the full post - Published June 14, 2008 in Euro2008, Football, Google, Web, Widgets

Newspaper widget review: Facebook Applications
I recently gave a presentation at the Miami IA Summit about Information Architecture and user-centred design ideas for widgets, and I very often blog about newspaper websites on currybetdotnet, so it seemed like an obvious idea to put the two together, and blog about newspaper widgets. In the previous two posts I've looked at the Yahoo! Widgets and Google Gadget platforms. Today I want to turn my attention to the Internet darling of 2007, Facebook. About Facebook Applications The decision...

Read the full post - Published May 14, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Newspapers, The Sun, Widgets

Newspaper widget review: Google Gadgets
I recently gave a presentation at the Miami IA Summit about Information Architecture and user-centred design ideas for widgets, and I very often blog about newspaper websites on currybetdotnet, so it seemed like an obvious idea to put the two together, and blog about newspaper widgets. In the previous post, I looked at the Yahoo! Widgets platform, and was surprised to find that only one British newspaper seemed to feature in any widgets - The Independent. Today I'm turning my...

Read the full post - Published May 13, 2008 in Daily Telegraph, Google, Newspapers, The Sun, Widgets

Newspaper widget review: Yahoo! Widgets
I recently gave a presentation at the Miami IA Summit about Information Architecture and user-centred design ideas for widgets, and I very often blog about newspaper websites on currybetdotnet, so it seemed like an obviously great idea to put the two together, and blog about newspaper widgets. Well, obvious maybe, but it turned out not to be such a great idea after all. Rather than ending up with a lengthy series of posts looking at all the available widgets and...

Read the full post - Published May 12, 2008 in Newspapers, Widgets, Yahoo

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Part 4
This is part 4 of a 4 part article - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Another approach that adds more value and entertainment to widgets is including 'Easter Eggs' - hidden bits of content or functionality triggered by specific user actions. The recent marketing campaign for U2's U23D concert movie was a great example of this. Users could download a widget which carried clips of the movie, behind-the-scenes footage, and news about the film leading up to...

Read the full post - Published April 20, 2008 in IA Summit, Widgets

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Part 3
This is part 3 of a 4 part article - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Now I want to move on and look at a dimension that is often-underused on websites, but can be absolutely crucial for widgets - time. It is fine to have a website or mini-site devoted to coverage of a specific event, and to leave that untouched at the end of the event as an archive of what happened. This particularly applies to...

Read the full post - Published April 19, 2008 in IA Summit, Widgets

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Part 2
This is part 2 of a 4 part article - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Let us imagine a company, that has just been told by their whizzy new internet consultant that they need to develop their widget strategy if they are to stay relevant to their target audience. The company - Nom Nom - makes small fluffy toys of baby animals, aimed at the pocket money of their target market, 9 to 15 year old girls....

Read the full post - Published April 18, 2008 in IA Summit, Widgets

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets - Part 1
This is part 1 of a 4 part article - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 We are all familiar with the basic history of how mankind developed the written word. Initially, to keep any message preserved, or available to be read by a large audience, you basically had to bang it into the side of some rock. This wasn't a very portable format, and it certainly didn't have RSS feeds. Over time humans improved their written communication,...

Read the full post - Published April 17, 2008 in Articles, IA Summit, Widgets

Saucy Sun snaps in their Facebook apps
Over the last couple of years I've had more cause to be critical of clumsy attempts by newspapers to incorporate advanced web features into their offering than I've had opportunity to praise them. However, I feel I have to grudgingly offer some respect to The Sun for the way they are using MySpace widgets and Facebook apps. They've launched a MY Sun Girl Next Door application on both platforms. "Is your Facebook or MySpace profile lacking some hotty action? Fancy...

Read the full post - Published February 13, 2008 in The Sun, Widgets

Vote Super Furry Animals!

Published February 1, 2008 in Music, Voting, Widgets

24/7 TV news websites: Part 14 - Lateral and related navigation I

Published January 29, 2008 in Media, Television, Web, Widgets

IA for tiny stuff: Exploring widgets and gadgets at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami

Published January 28, 2008 in IA Summit, Widgets

24/7 TV news websites: Part 9 - Sky News

Published January 21, 2008 in Television, Web, Widgets

British newspaper and blog feeds OPML file listed on Grazr

Published June 21, 2007 in Blogging, Newspapers, RSS, Widgets

"Schmap: Zaragoza Photo Inclusion"

Published September 5, 2006 in Flickr, Product review, Widgets