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Alternative Research Blogging Widget(s)

Research Blogging BadgeRecently John sent me the code for a ResearchBlogging.org widget that he wanted added to his sidebar. While adding the widget I discovered that it was highly uncustomizable. That is to say, it is what it is, and if it doesn't fit the scheme of your blog (height, width, color, etc.), well, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Needless to say, I like my cookies soft and chewy (read: malleable).

One solution I hit upon was to piggyback on Research Blogging's twitter account (ResearchBlogs) and Twitter's profile widget builder (which enables you to customize, among other things, the widgets colors and dimensions). What's more, Research Blogging's twitter feed includes posts from their News blog.

Another minimalist solution was to run a Research Blogging feed (pick one) through a pipe where you can then use the badge option to add a somewhat customizable widget to your web page.

To compare, here's a page with all 3 options side-by-side.

If you have another solution, or need help implementing any of the above, feel free to leave a comment.
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Comments

  1. Dave MungerMarch 3, 2010 at 4:38 AM

    Yeah, the lack of color-customization is a drawback of our widget. On the plus side is that it is customizable by topic, via your ResearchBlogging.org account.

    BTW, I like the design and concept of the Field of Science blogs. Very well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. EdwardMarch 4, 2010 at 12:08 PM

    Thanks Dave.

    ReplyDelete

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