Music widgets from iLike have been showing up on Facebook in the past few months, and other social bookmarking services for music have proven to be equally popular. Taking a page from this trend, Apple appears to have jumped into the game with a new set of customizable widgets that let you show off your musical tastes to everyone.
This release coincides with this week's debut of iLife '08, which, as we mentioned, includes an updated version of iWeb that's widget-friendly. Anyone can put these in their blog or Web site, assuming they've got an iTunes music store account and have been either purchasing or rating music tracks.
Below is an example from my test library. The widget in question is showing off my favorites. There are also widgets to show off your purchases, as well as any reviews you've written on the iTunes music store.
Update: Looks like this thing is having some kinks displaying information. Until it's been worked out, I've put it after the jump to speed things up on the front page. You can still find some workable examples on Apple's My iTunes page.
(Credit:
Apple.com)
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Apple's iWeb, one part of the iLife consumer apps suite, has received an interesting update this morning. iWeb is Apple's consumer-level Web site creation tool, and it gives users a simple way to drag and drop various Web site elements as well as fill in the included templates. The latest version is getting integration with two of Google's services: AdSense and Google Maps. iWeb users can now sign up for AdSense right inside the application, and pick how they want it to show up on their site. From the looks of the screenshots, it's much easier than having to copy and paste code into HTML pages. The Google Maps feature is also pretty straightforward, letting you drop in a draggable map anywhere on the page.
The best new feature, however, is the addition of Web snippets. This lets you drop in any old chunk of embed code to add various widgets, from YouTube videos to some of the more advanced ones we typically cover here on Webware. This opens up your iWeb-made page to a bundle of third-party services you wouldn't otherwise get in the somewhat limited creation tool.
Of course you could always get most of these features and more on the Web with services such as TypePad, WordPress, and Blogger--but Apple's approach is good for people who like to work with pages visually in a WYSIWYG environment.
iWeb users can now drop in a Google map or AdSense ads onto their Web site without knowing or using any HTML.
(Credit: Apple.com)
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