Today’s question from The Boston Bibliophile: Blog Widgets. Do you use them? Do you have them on your blog? Do you know what I’m talking about?
A blog widget is that list of books “From my LibraryThing” and such, that you’ll sometimes see on someone’s sidebar. If you use it, do all of your books show up or do you have it set to only show certain books? Do you have a search widget, which would allow your blog readers to search your library? Have you ever made a photomosaic of your book covers? You can find widgets and photomosaic information on the “Tools” tab in LibraryThing.
I do have a widget and I’m very fond of it. It’s just a regular “random books from my library” one, which shows 5 books and only the ones with covers. I’ve definitely refreshed my blog just to see what comes up when I’m bored. I only exclude books that don’t have covers from it because I think they’re a bit boring, otherwise it’s all out there. I like the photomosaic widget but I think this one fits best on my narrow sidebar.
I also use the “currently reading” widget on other websites I frequent which don’t take the covers one, but I have enough space to put up more than just the books I’m reading at any given time on this blog. On Facebook, I used an application that listed my favorites, currently reading, and newest additions. I think if LT had multiple fields on their widgets, I’d use those three, but I like random books for now.
I didn’t realize you could exclude books without covers in the “random books” widget. That was one of the reasons I never used it – so many of my books don’t have covers, and yes they do look boring. Think I might play around with the photomosaic widget a bit after the holidays when I have more time to be widgety.
I made an Early Reviewers widget, but that’s it for me.
I love both of the widgets I use on my blog. I made a currently reading widget from LT by using a tag-based widget. (I just have to remember to change the tags when I start a new book.)
you know..I am not sure if I excluded books without covers. I will have to check that, because I thing the preety covers are half the fun.
I love widgets – I didn’t realize you could exclude books without covers! I’m going to have to go check on mine!!
Here’s my Thinger!
Although I don’t use them any more, I love the widgets. At one time, I was a widget junkie…lol!
I really like the random books widget too, Meghan. I plan to use it with my new blog design.