I’m in total agreement with Jeremy Toeman here. That’s why I don’t use widgets on my site. Instead I’ve written Python jobs that sync my database with against open APIs on a scheduled basis, so that I can get any information I want to show, but since it all renders from my server it is much faster and more reliable.
I want a WidgetBlocker » Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally
Bookmarked via Diigo on Friday, September 7, 2007 @ 07:57 CDT by Daniel Andrlik
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Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007 @ 12:08 CDT
I have a few thoughts on this:
While widgets can be extremely annoying, they exist because many web users are not savvy enough to write their own Python scripts. While a sophisticated developer like yourself my find such tasks easy, most people do not. Yet, they still want to share their Last.fm plays, Flickr pictures, etc.
Be careful not to get sucked in to Developer Elitism. Widgets do server a useful purpose to the general web-using populations. It is THESE people - normal people - who will help evangelize and spread the usefulness of the web.
Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007 @ 12:29 CDT
That’s a given, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are serious drawbacks to widgets that have more to do with loading times and the overall detriment of the user experience. I don’t think it’s elitism to say that a page that loads slowly or with bugs creates a bad user experience.
Regarding my code, I’m merely pointing out that this is a more seamless way of displaying the data, and perhaps a better solution than the standard widget is to provide this data in a plugin format. That’s probably harder to support in the long run considering all the platforms out there, some of which are restrictive. Although I suspect that those products will eventually move to automatically integrating this data similarly to the way I have done with my custom CMS.
I didn’t get into a lot of detail when I bookmarked this as I was in a hurry, but I don’t appreciate being accused of “Developer Elitism” when I’m simply pointing out a problem. I’m not exactly saying, “No one may use widgets or suffer my wrath.”
Peace.
Posted on Friday, September 7, 2007 @ 12:30 CDT
Although I’ll probably agree with you that Jeffrey Toeman is a little harsh in his post, I still think he’s got a valid point regarding his problems with widgets.
Posted on Sunday, September 16, 2007 @ 12:50 CDT
I didn’t accuse you of anything - I said to be wary of it. I know the point you were trying to make, but the post didn’t come across that way.