del.ico.us Snippets and Widgets

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Here are two ideas to pass along; improving web site functionality by embedding external code, and a quick introduction to del.icio.us.

iWeb (used to write this blog), and other web editors can take advantage of little pieces of functionality found on the web.  Sometimes called “widgets” or “snippets”, these little pieces of code can add interesting functionality to an otherwise plain website.  They work in a variety of ways, from adding a few lines of html code to the site, to facilitating complex interactions with additional servers.  When you encounter a Google Map for example, it is often a little bit of code provided by Google designed to get a location reference from your site to build a map.  Pretty neat stuff.  This “FlickrVisionmashup combines pictures uploaded to Flickr with Google Maps to show their location on a moving world map.  Other widgets can provide functionality that ranges from the silly to the serious.  Widgetbox is one place to start exploring.

Del.icio.us is a “social bookmarking” site.  In the window at the top of this page is a “tag cloud” that shows my latest “tags”.  Try clicking on one.  By using Delicious to start a search on the Internet, you take advantage of other’s searches and are shown sites that they have found useful.  You can also send websites to others who use Delicious.