Ann Arbor Undressed : Why I Love These Little Guys

This is a first for me I am off to find out about a Widget. Thanks

Someone left me a message telling me I should get a widget.  I had know idea what they were, nor did they tell me what is was or what is was used for, so thank you for this post.  I will be getting one soon!

 

 

Thanks for the tip. There is an amazing amount of freeware on the internet. It is a veritable feast.

Missy - this is definitely a 5-STAR-PAGE!  I flagged this for a FEATURE!! You've supplied all the resources for WIDGETS as well as explaining them.  GOOD JOB GIRL!!

I almost forgot...will you be offering "SELF HELP" classes when we get addicted to THIS little FEATURE???

Rebecca, they are fun and that's the point. The other night I noticed on Chris Griffths page it was 77 in Florida and in the 90's in Michigan.

Lorinda, lot of good information if you click on the links from others posts too.

Rosario, yes and activerain is such a sharing community.

Thanks Missy- You are on top of it. Thanks I got it bookmarked.

Susie, Yes I will help you if you need it. But, it is not hard, once you know where to add them in settings.

I love your post, very useful.  Widgets have been, I confess, something of a mystery to me - every time I think I've got one neat new online gadget figured out, a new must-have one pops up! 

Unfortunately, I was irresistibly drawn to try the "Find A House Value Instantly" widget, and while it was right about some  details, it was way off on others that I'm in a position to know, like how much we bought our house for back in 1988 to the tune of an $11,000 discrepancy, and how much the house next door sold for recently, off by several months and about $80,000.  Bummer.  I'll have to check the tax records and see if THEY are off by this much (which has been known to happen).  

 

Hi Missy - BOOKMARKED!!  Thanks for this post and the links.  I've been told I should get a widget, too, but didn't really know where to get them or why to get one.  Thanks again!

Ann

Jeannette, Thanks.

Tricia, I checked my house to make sure it was accurate and due to the market decline I found it was. Please let me know.

Missy,

I love those little guys too!  This was new to me and I really appreciated your post (which I've already bookmarked.)

Ann, your welcome and have fun.

Diane, I have tons of posts bookmarked to implement at a slower time.

Sorry, Missy, that I didn't make myself clear.  The value of the house was, theoretically, within the appropriate range, if the upper part of that range (depending entirely upon the condition of the house.  The errors were in actual sold prices - it had the house next door as selling for about $80,000 more than I know, from the buyer, the seller, and the MLS, that it did, and it had that we paid $11,000 more than we did for our house in 1988. 

 

Missy,

I have toyed with the idea and I will revisit it - but it seems to me the more stuff you put on the side - the longer it takes your site to load - and even with high speed connections - not everyone has one and load time can be critical.

Have you noticed any delay at all?

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®
Mission Grove Realty

John, the only delays I have are when I link to people that put video's on. So far not on mine, did you have trouble?

Tricia, well good, at least it's better than the Zillow. ha !

Missy,

No, it seemed to come right up.  some of the guys from my office have Potlets on the side, showcasing listings - and they take forever - but are very cool.

Thanks, I'll play later.

Now Have a Blessed Day,

John Occhi, Hemet CA REALTOR®
Mission Grove Realty

I love those little buggers too!  Maybe I'll create a widget blog just for the little guys. 

Missy,

Appreciate you explaining the widget thing. I have heard about them and seen them, but didn't really pay much attention. Now I have to try one or two out on my sites and see how they work and so on.

 

Thanks for the informative post. We all need all the tips we can get.

Missy: I am getting so much useful info here today - all over AR. Thanks for the intro to more widgets!

Thanks for the widgets..

Great info and fun too! Keep itup. Thanks again

I have bookmarked this!  I know what a widget is but just cant figure them all out!  Hopefully you can see more on my right hand side soon!  Thank you for the information!

Missy.....   thanks for sharing this. I see so many AR members with widgets and I just never got into them as of yet. So now I must go check. Again, thanks for sharing this.

Thanks for sharing Missy, still don't think I'll get into them.  I'm more of a "back to basics" type and tend to dislike the clutter.  The widgets aren't nearly as bad as the Meez characters.

Missy, I LOVE this type of stuff. I have added this to my bookmarks and rated it a 5!!!

Okay that house widget is a must. I typed my info in, and voila, there it was and - unfortunately priced pretty close!!

Widgets can be fun and/or annoying. I've found that I swap out as many of them as I keep on my blog and currently running sans Widgets on Sadie's Take. I like the VFlyer one and it might be enough to get me to end my current Postlets and switch over to VFlyer to get that onto my other blogs.

Thanks for the great post and good luck!

Missy, I've been behind the curve for using (or understanding) widgets, but your post is very helpful.  I bookmarked your blog and rated it a 5!

Hi Missy, this looks neat. Thanks for sharing.

Loved the website you suggested for widgets!  It was fun!  I did one and gave you a little link love on my blog.  Thanks for blogging about this!

Missy, cool little house value widget. I tried it out and it was pretty accurate on my value, but not on the last sold date. Fun stuff. Thanks for sharing!

BTW, I agree with you about cluttering up with too many widgets. They're fun and can be helpful, but too many will make your page too busy.

Missy,

Nice post.  You are right that some of us wimps (me) are thinking, "I just learned to blog and now widgets..."  Staying up with everything can be overwhelming.

Fran

Ann, what a wonderful post.  I'm only now learning about widgets.  I'll check out your links.  Thanks so much!!!

I am going to call you Widggy from now on instead of Missy. I love widgetbox.com. Thank you for this awesome post and congratulation for being featured.

Missy, do you know if they hurt with SEO?  I'm thinking they must not.

I have bookmarked to look at later.  I'm in Colorado and using my parents dial up; it is slow going.  We celebrated my Dad's 90th birthday this weekend.

I like them, although too many become distracting, and some do slow the pages down too much.  The downside is most are advertising their name as well so it doesn't do anything for your branding efforts.

Great post Missy, and thanks for the mention.  Widgets are great and as time goes on, they will become more than just fun little entertaining gadgets on our blogs and websites, they will be a useful tool in helping us and our businesses in the future. Look at what MAC has done with the widget, it's incredible the future that these little attention getters will have.  (in moderation of course..  LOL!)

Great idea, thanks for sharing. I will check out the site later, but it looks like they have a lot of interesting stuff on there.

Missy - thanks for sharing - more "techie toys" to go check out (LOL)

I love cool things - thank you so much for sharing

Thanks so much for posting this.  I have only been blogging for 3 days, so "it's all Greek to me!"  Very helpful.

Jane Hansen 

I have always wondered how to get those things on my page!  Thanks I will bookmark

I love widgets! I can't wait to play with them all =D  Thanks for sharing with us.

Missy, thanks for the information and links, great post. I just started here a few weeks ago and I'm learning plenty, thanks to some great blog posts like yours.

Missy, did you happen to catch Ed Ryb's post on the stalker widget?  It was rather cleaver.  The MyBlogLog "STALKER" Widget: Should it stay or should it go?  (members only)  Feel free to delete the link, if it's troublesome.

John, thanks for clarifying.

Linda, you should that would be great ! There is so much more to say on the topic and examples to be seen.

Esko, Bob and Carolin, all things in moderation.

Paula, your welcome. It is nice to give back as so many here share so generously.

Armondo, your  very welcome.

Kim, it took me hours the first one I used but once you know how to put them in it is easy.

Jeff, your welcome.

Chris, hey girlfriend it's your blog and web-site you be who you are. :)

Teri, I love your little glitter girl. I enjoy widgets. My house was close too, I added it only after I checked.

Toby, I like posting things with my vflyer, widget gallery. It shows all my listings at once. ( or the ones I have created flyers on. )

Missy,

I like the widgets but I had too many on my page and they take away the rest of you home page..too much attention for me and sometimes it makes your page smaller when the widget runs off the page.

Brian, thanks for the high 5!

Brad, your welcome. Yes, ALL things in moderation. Your page is a great example of what you can do with them.

Axel, thanks you can't learn it all at once and I have tons of posts bookmarked.

Jack, have you ever learned as much from your office ? No, not me.

Jane, welcome to activerain. I have learned more in 8 months than in the last 13 years.

Donna, :)

Lisa, well play with them all but don't use them all it will be too distracting. Pick out the ones you think will be helpful and a few fun ones.

Joe, I learn alot too. ALL the time.

Chris, I did read that post and followed the discussion. I tool my bloglog off for awhile and I missed all my friends faces so added it back. I have no problem with how people handle their blogs or convictions. Disagreement makes us grow. Unless someone was nasty, I would never delete the comment.

Neal, I have seen a few too, where people don't know how to resize them and you have to read their posts on 1/4 the page. I learned how to resize with the meeze which I took off because after a while I got tired of looking at me. ( her). Ha Ha, I am hopeful my Dell parts will come today. So far a new refrig, microwave, etc. but no parts for my desktop and I am tired of typing on my tablet.

Hi Missy, I'm in the same spot you were in December. Blogging's new to me. I feel like I'm learning a new language with all of the web terms I'm coming across. By the way, if you have any buyers or sellers you'd like to send my way again, I'd be happy to give them great service. I service South Oakland County. I know we had a deal together years ago. I just can't remember the property. You gave me a referral at the closing table. Thanks, again.

Hi Ann,

Thanks for this!  I love widgets and will everytime someone blogs about it I learn more.  I'm going to explore this further now.  Great tip!

Deb, I learn more every day. Hard to keep up sometimes, so I bookmark to refer to time permitting.

Lisa, thanks !

Maybe I should use these widgets to advertise my open houses. Could help...

As a Mac user, it doesn't surprise me that widgets have moved to the PC platform. It's an interesting way to use them and I may add a few to my website. Thanks for a terrific post!

there are so many things you can add to and use to enhance your site...

great synopsis

Thank you for this information. Man...there s so much to know and so many possibilities with this blog stuff!!!!

"Widgets" can also be "spyware" in the guise of a useful or interesting tool.  Too many locally installed widgets may tend to slow down your systems.

Joe, great idea. Let me know how it works.

Jennifer, yep we're always behind Mac's. Aren't we ?

David, thanks :)

JR, yes I learn everyday from activerain members.

Larry, I know that, that why you have to check your source code after you install them. But, not all of them do that. So far nothing I have installed on activerain have done that.

Ryan Hull, sorry I missed you, I went to bed shortly after posting and skipped you. I agree too many is overkill.

Mana, you can call me anything you want. Widgey is fine. I've been called worse.

Fran, Does you head ever hurt at night with all the information we learn here ? Mine does it just won't hold all of the great stuff we learn.

Stephanie, thanks girl !

Brian, glad I could help.

Marchel, isn't it weird when we have to go back to dial up ? Remember when that use to be the norm. Congratulations to your dad !!! That is a milestone.

Hey Ann, just a note, great post. There is a real estate only widget site called http://www.housingwidgets.com that has the vflyer widget, mortgage calculator widgets, and more. Plus you can add your own. the difference is that these are pretty much just for real estate or have real estate applications, like Jaxtr, meebo, etc. Think of it as a filter for widgets, you guys can add and rate the widgets there too. It is totally free, no spam, etc, purely a site to track real estate friendly widgets - a bunch of widgets for Wordpress blogs, etc. Hope it helps.

cheers,

Pierre

Thanks for opening my eyes to the world of widgets!

Widgets are fun!  Thanks for the fun read Fran!

When I heard what widgets were at the Inman News Conference, i wondered what the heck it was. I still have no clue! Does anyone use these widgets and can you use a real life example of one

Missy, what is it about the "house" widgets?  I caught the comment that they were close in a couple of cases....please let me know what this is all about.

Ryan and Chris, the widgets are on the right hand side of my blog. Scroll up and you will see it.

There is a vflyer one with some of my listings, the house value on is below it. All the little squares are considered widgets too. Blogroll is also a widget where you can see other people's faces.

Let me know if you still can't understand it and I'll try to make it clearer.

Pierre, I am from Ann Arbor Mi but my name is Missy. Thanks, for the home site and I will go look at it asap.

Yvette, you are very welcome.

Karen, feel better.

Missy Caulk

Widgets are a lot of fun but have a downside as well. I think the real fun is giving them a try and seeing how they fit with you blog, website, etc. Good fun but can also a be a helpful tool.

I have bookmarked this blog so I can come back and take a look at these widgets.  It does look like a lot of fun.  I can't wait to get a little free time to check them out.

Thanks Missy for bring to my attention a great resource. I'm sure I'm going to find some great new tools I can use on my website and blog.

Missy,

Your timing could not have been better for me!  Someone just put me on to vflyer.com today and I published my first listing using it.  I was extremely impressed that this could be done in a blog.  I saw another tab with "Widgets" and was not brave enough to check it out.  Then I come back here and see your post.  I guess I am going to have to go back to give it a try!  I book-marked your post in case I get lost ;)

Doug, thanks for the comment. Your right too many can be a downside.

Joan, good for you.

Alex, I'm sure you will as more are developed everyday.

Patrick, the tutorial is great but call me if you need help.

Missy -Thanks for sharing, I see some people using alot of the little guys.  You do such a great job of keeping up with all this stuff

Jennifer, thanks for the compliment.

Missy:

As always a very useful post - I had not considered widgets or really known about them.  Thanks.

Bookmarked this one. Thanks loads for doing it... and leading us to the sources.

Missy,

Great !! :)  I will take a look on that, I have not had time to play with widgets yet, but I will in the near future LOL

Ray SAenz

Missy,

Thank you for the great list of resources - I need to add some stuff to my outside blog to spice it up some.  You do a great job showcasing Ann Arbor with everything you add to your blog.

Cathy, well now you do. So go for it.

Gary, you are very welcome.

Ray,:)

Rita, thanks so much.

Missy,

when you wrote about this blogs, I imagine like little trolls or small people :) hahaha, but what a great blog you have done

Missy - Thank you for the easy, step-by-step instructions on adding a widget, and also for the link to Widgetbox.  I cannot believe how many there are to choose from.  I think that I've found the perfect one to compliment my niche, and it has already enhanced the look of my blog.  Being a newbie, there is so much to learn, and I'm always grateful when experienced Rainers are there to help.

Ray, thanks yes they do look like trolls.

Adam, you are very welcome. Brad Andershon wrote an excellent tutorial today on how to add them in your activerain profile. Go check it out, it is excellent !!

great information Missy. thank you for sharing. I`m amazed at what these things can do.

Joe, they are fun, aren't they.

Missy, I can't seem to leave your blog this morning.  And I've gotta go!  Just wanted to thank you for the usefulness of this blog; Active Rainers are closet educators, I'm thinking.  I bookmarked it and intend to set aside an hour to learn to use Widgets today.  Thank you for USEFUL content!

Mike in Tucson

Hey I like it......closet educators. Your welcome, enjoy all the widgets just don't go overboard.

Missy, so that's what a widget is!!

Amazing how many are just learning about widgets! Thanks for helping them!!!

Stephen, Yes that is what a widget is.

Barbara Jo, your very welcome.

Missy,

Loved the blog, widgets really are fun and can be a great tool.  My company actually just developed a widget of our own for real estate professionals and consumers.  If anyone is hungry for more widgets they can check out ours here.  We would love to hear comments about how our widget is doing too.

I already have your widget in my side bar. I like it the valuations are better than zillow.

Thanks for this great post - I had been playing around with widgets for the first time yesterday - found one at mybloglog but not sure if I am doing it right. I will definitely check out widgetbox.com. Also, Trulia.com came out with new widget tools to post market data. I got it to work - but it didn't play well with my other widgets and pushed everything way way down - have you tried using that one? 

Erica, I have the Trulia one on my http://MissyCaulk.com site, check it out. I had my webmaster load it there. I like mybloglog alot.

Missy - thanks I Will check it out - You have the best blogs!!! I also just posted an apology comment on the blog about widgets in the sidebar where I called you ANN!! So sorry!!!! 

Missy, I keep looking at widgets thinking I'm going to start using them, but for some reason I have a mental block to them.  I'm a pretty technical person too, so I'm not sure why I'm resisting.  I think I'll make a point to really look at these this weekend.  Thanks for posing about them!

Great Post.  I guess this is why you have 100 comments.  

Erica, no problem it happens alot.

Kelly, hummm mental block, maybe just one more thing on your to do list. I have many posts bookmarked to do later.

Adam, wow I had NO clue !

Missy,

Thanks for this information.  What a great tool.

Pat

Pat, you are very welcome.

wow for a little bit I thought I was a bad friend the first couple posts on your 6 pack I had never seen - I remember this one well.... I still need to learn some of this stuff

Thanks for the info...I'm off to check out the widgets!

Krista, have fun I do !!

I am one of those that is fairly new to blogging, AR, social networking, and I think the widgets are pretty cool.  I will check out your references to see which ones I might want to add to my AR blog page.  Thanks.