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You might be familiar with the term “widgets” from your college economics class… maybe you’re wondering how that relates to a web widget? Well, rather than being a placeholder for a name (like economics widgets), a web widget is a snippet of code (an applet) that can enhance your visitors’ web experience. Web widgets are often developed by a third party, but the widget itself is completely portable — you can pretty much install it on any html page you like. Some examples of widgets include countdown tickers, clocks, current weather, recent twitter updates, and such. It’s kind of like applications for the iPhone. If you can think of a need, there’s probably “a widget for that.”
Below, I’ve included a screenshot of the Twitter Widget “creation” page. You can customize your own Twitter widget, based on the look and feel you want… no code-know-how required!
The WordPress interface comes with a series of widgets, which are designed to help enhance your visitor’s experience (check it out by going to Appearance > Widgets”). Some common WordPress widgets include: archives, calendar, categories, links, meta, pages, recent comments, recent posts, RSS, search, tag cloud, and text. That last one, “text,” allows you to insert text or html code anywhere you can put a widget. The Twitter widget I mentioned above — you will end up with a snippet of HTML code …and in order to get it to display in WordPress, you’ll need to paste the HTML code into a “text” widget within WordPress.
Where do widgets typically show up? WordPress widgets usually manifest themselves in the sidebar or footer of the blog (it depends on your theme). Usually a theme will come with a default sidebar, but you can customize your own by arranging your favorite widgets in your preferred order. For example, my customized sidebar includes these widgets: random posts, recent comments, tag cloud, categories, links, and speaking schedule. By rearranging the widgets listed in the Appearance > Widgets dashboard page, I can completely rearrange all that code in the blink of an eye.
Flash or HTML? These days, widgets come in both the HTML and Flash variety. Many people prefer Flash widgets because they are more interactive and “flashy.” Just keep in mind that Flash widgets may not work on all viewers’ browsers. If you really want to make sure all your viewers have a congruous experience, stick with the tried-and-true HTML widget.
Still confused about the purpose of a Widget? Check out Wikipedia’s Web Widget article.
Interested in writing your own WordPress Widget? The WordPress Codex is a good place to start, as it includes documentation on “how widgets work”: WordPress Widgets API.
