Widget wisely and well...

So why widget? For fun ... for borrowed programming glory ... to add texture and customized character. But don't overdo the bells and whistles: too many can distract from your content, the point of the whole enterprise. And a whole mess of widgets can bog down a blog, as feeds and data stream off the various mother sites.

As Timethief pointed out at One Cool Site: a common mistake beginner bloggers make is the overuse widgets as sidebar decorations, methods of bragging, and as space fillers, because they fail to consider the following:

1. the impact of the amount of script they have running on their blogs on their readers experience;

2. the collection of reader information (computer IP, location, browser type and version) that some widget use results in; and
   

3. how all those widgets clutter the 12-inch screen of laptops.

So widge away, but judiciously. As Mike points out, they introduce a lot of third-party reliance. "Widgets not hosted by Blogger – that is, not on the gadget menu list – are probably running on their creator's server, somewhere out there in the world, which may or may not be robust. You're also relying on them being a good citizen, like not drinking beer and coding."

A wonky widget might create a blank patch. Or – worse scenario – it could crash the page or load hella-slowly, dinging your PageRank. Google is revamping its 200-point algorithm to determine how the search engine features pages at the moment, as the company's Matt Cutts discusses here. The ongoing, super-secret (as always) update – nicknamed Caffeine – may factor site speed more heavily, rumors claim. Later in the course, we'll talk about how to monitor such things closely. For now, just be judicious about how many ornaments you hang on the tree...