The Many Faces of Facebook: Widget Review

Facebook just started allowing all users to embed many new widgets into their web pages which link directly to Facebook and bring streams and info directly from Facebook. I will show you them all here and discuss their usefulness and applicability. Enjoy and please comment below with your opinion on Facebook's new widget collection. Embedding is easy: cut the embed code provided and paste it in the HTML of your page. Enjoy and experiment with the many other 'feeds' you can aggregate like Netvibes & Pipes by Yahoo.


personal photo badges:
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This is a bit of new one and I like it. Try it! Offering simple features:

• Vertical versus horizontal
• 1 or 2 columns
• 1 - 8 photos in the badge
• It pulls from your photo upload stream automatically, so be careful.
  
• REVIEW: Slick, simple and uncluttered.

personal profile badges: 
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The profile badge is one of Facebook's original badges for your external site. They have a number of options now and that's the best part about it. You can change the badge to fit your needs using as much or as little information as you want. Be sure to check it out to see for yourself. This is like a mini look at your profile. It's got possibilities but I don't know if people are looking to share more about themselves at this point.



website widgets - fan box:
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BCIT: The British Columbia Institute of Technology on Facebook
 

The Facebook fan box is possibly the best badge of all. It allows your Page's stream to be embedded on any other page. It creates opportunities for your audiences to both know you have a Facebook fan page and to know what content you normally post on it. This is my most recommended badge. You get the option to show you stream and/or your fans. If you use just the stream the box is sleek, simple and dynamic.

website widgets - live stream box:
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The live stream box is looks like it is tied to an application but it allows me to use my pages as options. This feature allows users to chat live at events from Facebook. It's a good idea that was rolled-out earlier and used to chat during the Academy awards last year. I don't think the LiveStream box is working just yet when embedded but it seems pretty awesome.

website widgets - page badge:
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The page badge is a jazzed up version of a simple badge and allows you to choose what information you are going to display about your page. Be sure to play around with it and customize it to your specifications.