Blogging Roller

Dave Johnson on open web technologies, social software and software development


WIP: Widgets and Gadgets

This is the fifth in my series of Web Integration Patterns. Check out the intro at this URL http://rollerweblogger.org/roller/entry/web_integration_patterns

Synopsis

Allow other web sites and applications to integrate your site into their web pages by providing an embeddable user interface, commonly known as a Gadget or Widget, which allows users to view and interact with your site in the context of other sites.

Motivations

  • By embedding Widgets in your site, you can make your site more useful and informative to your users. Users can access relevant information from other sites in the context of your web site.
  • By allow other sites to embed your Widgets, you can give your site and the services that it offers wider reach. Your users can access and interact with your services in the context of other sites.
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Twitter moving away from hashbang URLs

This is such good news for the web that it gets its own blog entry. According to Dan Web, an engineer at Twitter:

@timhaines plus, now I'm in charge of undoing twitters hashbang URLs I can 
confirm that all the issues in that article are very real.
@danwrong x months from now (when your project completes) Twitter will no
longer use hashbangs?
@timhaines correct. All gone. It was a mistake for several reasons.
PushState or bust.

The whole conversation is here:
http://storify.com/timhaines/hashbang-conversation

Here's an excellent chapter on HTML 5 history and PushState: http://diveintohtml5.info/history.html

And in case you've forgotten, here's why hashbangs suck.


The meaning of the Facebook like button

Tags: facebook

HTML5 Microdata and Schema.org

Worth a read and related to my Web Integration Patterns post on Embedded Properties in HTML:

HTML5 Microdata and Schema.org:HTML5 Microdata and Schema.org On June 2, 2011, Bing, Google, and Yahoo! announced the joint effort Schema.org. When the big search engines talk, Web site authors listen. This article is an introduction to Microdata and Schema.org. The first section describes what HTML5, Microdata and Schema.org are, and the problems they have been designed to solve. With this foundation in place section 2 provides a practical tutorial of how to use Microdata and Schema.org using a real life example from the cultural heritage sector. Along the way some tools for implementers will also be introduced. Issues with applying these technologies to cultural heritage materials will crop up along with opportunities to improve the situation.

Understanding Google's new privacy policy

Worth a read:

Understanding Google's new privacy policy: When Google changed its privacy policy last week, they made a strong effort to ensure that everyone knew that a change had occurred, but if you tried to figure out what had actually changed, you had to wade through a lot of buzzwords and legalese. Now the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Rainey Reitman explains it in simple language.
Tags: google privacy

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