Mark’s Blog

I have been building a proposal for a client, and to get more familiar with the iGoogle Gadget API, I built a Gadget that pulls a list of URLs from a remote XML file asynchronously and displays them.

Fun lessons I learned about writing iGoogle Gadgets:

• Using the iGoogle editor allows you to quickly edit, preview and troubleshoot apps, BUT does not allow you to use anything but the legacy APIs
• You cannot develop with the new APIs by calling them from your server, as they are cached by Google every hour (along with any called XML files)
• iGoogle has a pretty intuitive setup for using Javascript and writing cross-browser apps, once you look past the (very) rough developer’s tools

Here’s the gadget as it exists currently:

My future plans are to put the links in a tab, and change the link loading scheme.  The images are just too big and take precious vertical space. I’ll use another tab to display an RSS feed.  iGoogle has an API to chew on feeds and convert them to JSON for you.

I think loading the App data from an external XML/JSON is a far superior solution to hard-coding it into an app.  It allows it to be edited much easier by an program/unskilled user. You can view the code by reading the XML file here.

Click the link to go download SEO Toolbar

Aaron Wall, writer of SEOBook, is one of my favorite people to read.  His blog, SEOBook Blog, is filled with great information about search engine optimization.  He’s a leader in his field, and on top of that, a very good writer who makes the subject very interesting.  Today I have a new reason to rave about Mr. Wall.  He has released a new SEO Tool for Firefox, called SEO Toolbar.

SEO Toolbar takes many features from older SEO Book tools, and incorporates them into a brand new consolidated toolbar for Firefox.  I am a daily user of SEO for Firefox, which is included.  Also included is an updated version of Rankchecker for Firefox.  However, merely including already-powerful tools is not enough.  Aaron Wall has improved the core functionality of SEO for Firefox.  I will definitely use the ability to cross-compare sites in Firefox, and relish the ability to export it to Excel CSV.  These tools will allow my day-to-day SEO campaigns to be put under even closer scrutiny.  Stuff I don’t use as much (yet!) has been included, such as RSS feed of popular SEO blogs, an SEO dictionary, competitive research tools, Google SK Tool integration, and more.

Lastly, the software is completely free!  No hassle-ware or other widgets begging me to hand my credit card to the publisher.  It’s truly a great asset to the community, much like its creator.