Week 12: Browsers, toolbars, widgets and mashups

This week we are taking a brief look at browsers, toolbars, widgets and mashups.

Web browsers

Many people use Internet Explorer (IE) as this is the browser that comes with Windows. However it is useful to know that there are a number of other browsers out there that are better/different alternatives to IE.

Each browser has good points and bad points – these are usually related to speed, security and customisation. Examples of web browsers include Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.

For a quick overview (4.5 mins) of the differences between IE, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari view this YouTube video:

Toolbars

A toolbar is a horizontal or vertical row of icons/buttons that enables you to easily click on/link to features of a particular programme, service or tool. It sits either within the programme, such as your browser or floats at the the top or on the side of your screen.

You can customise toolbars within your browser or programme, such as Firefox or IE or you can download or create toolbars for a variety of resources, for example the Pubmed toolbar (only works in Firefox).  These are become more popular and are a good way of embedding us as a service (be this the library or the institution) in our user’s workspace.  The LibX toolbar is a great example of this – we will ask you to install this as you do the activity for this week.

Widgets

The term widget has a variety of meanings depending on where it is used. In a nutshell, a widget is a piece of code that can be embedded into any html page that allows a user to do stuff. For a simple explanation of what a widget is, see What is a web widget? from Widgets for Web 2.0.

In the Learning 2.0 programme you will have encountered widgets in web applications such as WordPress and Wetpaint. As you may recall, they enable you to display content from other sources, such as embedding a YouTube video on your wiki page or you may have added widgets to your Word Press blog to enable the display of recent posts or your blogroll.

Mashups

Put simply, a mashup is what you create when you take data from various sources and put them together. A very popular current use of mashups is integrating some kind of data with Google maps, for example creating a map of the location of restaurants in your area. The plus is that you do not require high levels of technical skills to build mashups.

The Mashup Awards highlights the best of what’s out there on the web in mashups or you can view this video for a (slighly) more technical overview of mashups