Sep 23 2008
Google’s Book Search Widget
[poll id="99"]Google has released a “Book Search” widget wherein anyone with tech knowledge can “emembed a Google-hosted preview of up to 20% of any book that has been included in the Google Book Search database.” Books-A-Million, Blackwell Bookshop, Borders and Powells will offer this Google Preview service. This is similar to the “search inside” feature at Amazon.com.
I’m not really sure I get widgets. Some publishers offer countdown clocks. Others offer “buy” link widgets. I find myself unmoved by widgets. Often they are ugly and take too long to load. What’re your thoughts?
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Sep 23, 2008 @ 20:44:38
Another annoying issue is that they don’t work on some older computers (like mine!). When a web site installs a widget, they often make a previous action incompatible. For example, Amazon’s Search Inside. You used to be able to click on a book cover and see a larger image of the book – something I used a lot for the cover contest. Now, if I click on a cover, I get a message: “The Amazon Online Reader does not work with your web browser.” But I don’t want to use the online reader. I want to see a larger image of the cover! The image still exists, but I can’t access it because I can’t use the online reader.
I end up going to the B&N web site instead, since they don’t use those fancy widgets, and they’re still compatible with my clunky old computer.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 20:52:38
Karen, another option for bookcovers can be found at
http://www.librarything.com/
It’s free to join, and you can often choose from a variety of covers uploaded by others.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 21:27:17
I use widgets on my site (I’m using WordPress) for most of what I have in my sidebars, but they’re the simple ones. However, I do code my blogroll directly into the sidebar php.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 21:40:33
I use two, I think two, and they’re very small so they don’t take long to load at all. I use typepad and have them coded in my sidebar as well.
What I can’t stand are the sites that have a java or flash front end that takes 30 seconds to load, and then I can’t find the ‘skip intro’ button. I want the information. If they want to give me a show, give me something to click on.
But that’s me. A lot of people really like the front end show. :)
Sep 23, 2008 @ 21:48:10
Don’t know much about widgets, but using the Google Books previews has helped me decide whether or not to buy a book.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 21:49:01
They do?! ;) (I hate it, too.)
Oh, another thing. The single most useful widget to me, on any blog, is the “recent posts” widget. If I could only have one widget, that’s the one I’d have.
My bookstore site has a plugin for e-commerce that has a shopping cart sidebar widget. Clean and simple, the way I like it. I can’t deal with cluttered sites very well.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 21:56:15
MoJo…that’s what I read in all the design articles. I’d like to know one, just one, of those ‘lot of people’ though. Haven’t met one yet! :)
I agree. The ‘recent posts’ widget is probably the number one thing I look for on any blog/website.
And I don’t deal with all that clutter either. The more clutter, the less likely I am to spend any time on the site.
*sigh*
Sep 23, 2008 @ 22:21:02
I hate a cluttered site as well. Even when it comes to the epubs, I only buy from one and it’s because its site is the easiest to read. It’s like people don’t understand that white space is there for a reason.
As for widgets and whatnot? Maybe it’s because my computer is old as well, but I loathe them. I have very limited time to read a blog and if it takes forever to load I’ll probably click off and never go back. Too annoying.
Sep 23, 2008 @ 22:24:32
Roslyn, I think your site’s beautiful. I go to your site to look at all the pretty. :D
I bought some books from Samhain today and was very pleasantly surprised by their overhauled shopping cart. Very clean, very easy to navigate, all the information in the most intuitive spots. I was very, VERY impressed.
Sep 24, 2008 @ 08:15:47
Yay! It’s nice to have feedback, especially when we had such a huge change. Sometimes people have trouble with something new, so it’s great to know we changed for the better! Thanks.
Sep 24, 2008 @ 17:23:39
I like my widgets, but they are GUI widgets. From the comments here, you are talking about web widgets, a different thing altogether. I probably would have answered your poll differently if I had realized this.
Sep 24, 2008 @ 20:04:37
Me too. I assumed the Google widget was for my desktop, not for my website.