Last Thursday, I went to a moderately unsatisfactory conference on widgets. I say it was moderately unsatisfactory, because during the event we saw precisely no widgets at all, but mostly sales pitches from improbably-named companies, one of which used the fantastic bullshit bingo claim that widgets help “leverage virality”, which was so splendid bollocks-language that I made a special note of it.

We also had no examples of how widgets had done, who had used widgets, and how their takeup has been. The audience were more interested in “where’s the money coming from?”, and the whole event appeared to be moderately negative towards widgets and gadgets - probably because the audience didn’t really understand what it was that they were talking about.

I piped up from the back, essentially saying that the big thing that nobody had stressed was the need for an API, and to make that API public. Without a public API, your audience can’t make widgets with your content. Everything you build should have an API. (Thankfully, I practice what I preach, at least in this case).

The BBC runs something called BBC Backstage which contains a (woefully inadequate) list of APIs and feeds that the BBC runs. Some aren’t very reliable, which is something that I wish to change. Some obvious feeds aren’t there yet, which - for radio, at least - I wish to change, too.

One of those feeds for BBC Weather, for which I spent a rainy afternoon coding an iGoogle BBC weather gadget. I placed that blog entry live, announced it on the Backstage mailing list, submitted it to the iGoogle directory, and forgot about it.

The screenshot above, therefore, shows what happens to a widget once released into the wild. As you can see, its takeup is really rather good: it’s regularly getting 8,500 hits every day. And I’ve simply not promoted it. (Nor’s anyone else, from what I can tell). And let’s be very clear: this is a widget which is designed to replace a weather widget which is installed on every single new iGoogle page: hardly the easiest job to convince people to change.

What I’ve not monitored (but could) is how many people use it to click through to the BBC website, to satiate those who wanted ROI information. (It’s not really the purpose of this gadget, being honest.)

So hopefully this information helps those who were at that event, but couldn’t see the benefit of widgets. Build an API - make it open - and watch your community do stuff with your content.

If you’re looking for good widgets to add to your iGoogle front page, by the way, try Media UK’s media news, and Media UK’s live radio and television player. I’ve used them every day since I, er, wrote them.

The screenshot is straight from my Asus Eee PC, which I’ve customised to add a sensible desktop to, instead of the tabbed interface. It’s a five minute job.

Disclosure: I was a guest at the Mashup widget event, and avoided paying the entrance fee. My full disclosure is relevant to this posting.

Prompted by Martin Belam’s list, and to avoid the utter boredom of reinstalling OSX now that my Mac Mini’s internal hard drive has given up the ghost a day before Christmas, here’s my top ten blog posts of 2007, thanks to Google Analytics.

I don’t get nearly the number of readers that Martin gets, and interestingly my recent appearances on the BBC Internet Blog (and links from it) haven’t altered my blog traffic significantly. In fact, most of the traffic to james.cridland.net has been related to a BBC Backstage gadget I’ve written, bringing feeds of BBC Weather to iGoogle. But, here’s the most-read blogs.

1. Fantastists and lazy journalists
Back in March, I looked at a story that the press failed to adequately check before printing, while I checked on it by, um, typing things into Google. I don’t comment on this story any more, and almost feel wrong even linking to it, but it’s clear that others still find it interesting. I wish Ryan and his family all the best.

2. When a perfectly valid credit card won’t work
Highly confusing, this one. This is just a rant, in January, against a credit card (one I don’t have any more, I think), but has clearly caught some search-engine love.

3. iPlayer on GNU/Linux
Welcome news about the BBC iPlayer, with a screenshot from the Ubuntu box in the kitchen. Oly posted in 12 December, but the third most popular posting of the entire year.

4. Review of the O2 XDA Mini S
A review of one of the most hateful phones I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to own. Curiously, my idea (held within this post) of how wifi should work on mobile phones is entirely how the Apple iPhone works. Interesting, too, how much of what I say is fixed with the iPhone.

5. I move to the BBC
My announcement from May, which many linked to. This posting has the record for the amount of comments on this little blog - 37 comments to one post. I ended up leaving Virgin at the end of June, and starting at the BBC on 9 July.

6. DAB+ in the UK
From March, a posting which appears quite high in a search for “DAB Plus” apparently; berating WorldDMB’s Quentin Howard for saying DAB+ would “never come to the UK”. He was wrong then, and while there are still no plans for any DAB+ broadcasting in the UK, he’s still wrong now.

7. How to auto-fill your iPod and train it for better music
From January. I mean to write a follow-up; but sadly have lost my iTunes library thanks to a failed hard-drive today, including all my information about the songs I like. Sigh. Will have to listen to lots more music, then.

8. Channel 4 and DAB Digital Radio
From March: an enthusiastic post about the (winning) Channel 4 bid for the second DAB multiplex. I wonder how many of the promised services will actually make it on-air? Virgin Radio Viva’s certainly not there… and it had a nice logo, too…

9. The Apple TV versus the Sony PSP
A long blog entry from March, essentially saying that if you allow people to hack your products, they’ll sell more. The Apple TV has, of course, sunk without trace; while the Sony PSP has lived to see another day.

10. iGoogle BBC Weather gadget
The source of most traffic to james.cridland.net these days. Bizarrely, Hereford appears to be the most popular place that people want their weather for.

11. Pandora - available to the US only? Or not
A rant about Pandora (who don’t pay PRS/MCPS and PPL licences) still being available in the UK.

12. talkSPORT nicks my little UK flag
…and I’m happy. This blog posting made me add the flag to all my sites again. Ah.

13. DAB audio quality from Ofcom
94% of people say that DAB audio quality is just as good if not better than FM. Worth a blog post.

14. Sky Anytime
I discover this catchup service on my Sky box. Seems to me that we’ll be much better services by proper IP-delivered catchup services. BBC iPlayer seems to fit the bill rather better these days.

15. The story of last.fm
To coincide with their sale to CBS, I witter on about how they don’t pay any licences to the music collection agencies, and just went ahead and made a business (while PPL, MCPS/PRS just stood around and did nothing). Nothing has changed.

16. DAB Slideshow
A photograph of the UK’s first DAB Slideshow services. The BBC has since added some slideshow services, but I don’t own a radio capable of decoding them.

17. Facebook - goodness, it’s good
I discover Facebook. In May of this year. And it’s quite good.

18. Getting rid of out-of-office replies in Gmail
Quite a few rules to rid yourself, mainly, of out-of-office replies. This post needs updating.

19. Logitech Harmony review
A long-term review of a remote control. No, seriously, it’s in the top 20.

20. Google Charts with PHP
Only posted in December, this is announcing a free mostly-port of some Google JavaScript code (which does the same job in PHP). The power of open-source strikes again.

Might I wish you a happy and safe Christmas.

Photo: Stuart Meldrum. Used under licence.

‘Storm cloud’ (in Oslo) from *saipal on Flickr. Used under licence.

One of the cleverest things at the BBC is their BBC Backstage thing, which allows the BBC to get closer to clever developers. “Use our stuff to build your stuff” is a nice ideal, and Matt & Ian, the two behind Backstage, are good at engaging the development community.

The list of feeds for Audio & Music isn’t great, and I hope to be able to build-in proper feeds going forward. No OPML feed for BBC podcasts seems like something that ought to be easy to fix. However, there are plenty of nice feeds elsewhere.

One such decent feed is from the BBC Weather site. I use iGoogle, and would rather know where my weather forecast’s coming from than the default version; so an hour’s coding over a cup of tea has given the world http://ig4bbcweather.notlong.com, a little iGoogle gadget to bring you the latest BBC Weather forecast.

You can edit the settings to choose your UK placename; the full forecast from the BBC Weather website is just a click away.

This joins Media UK’s media news feed and Media UK’s live player (every single live radio station from the UK, and even some live TV) as some of the iGoogle gadgets on my front page. And, coincidentally, some of the iGoogle gadgets I’ve written.