Thursday, January 15, 2009
As you're building your site, you may be looking for a simple way to provide fresh content that captures the attention of first time visitors and loyal users alike. They say that music brings people together, so what better way to engage your visitors than by inviting them to help build a unique, collaborative soundtrack for your website? Now, social application creator iLike has built a special version of their social playlist gadget for sites using Google Friend Connect.
Visitors can add their favorite songs
iLike's playlist gadget lets you and your visitors shape the site's "musical footprint" as a group. With this application, anyone visiting your website can listen to songs on the playlist, and if they sign in using Friend Connect, they can add their own favorites to the list. Of course, you can also add songs to the playlist, and as the site administrator, you have the ability to remove songs or change the order.
If you already have Friend Connect running on your website, you can add some musical flair in a matter of minutes with just a few clicks. Sign in at www.google.com/friendconnect, click "Social Gadgets," and you'll find the iLike "Playlist gadget" in the gallery.
Select the "Playlist gadget," and Friend Connect will automatically generate a snippet of code for you to copy-and-paste into your website's HTML. While you're there, you may also consider adding the "Wall gadget"—music can be a great conversation starter!
This iLike gadget is fully integrated with your existing Friend Connect account, so you can edit your website's playlist, moderate wall posts, and manage membership all from a single interface.
Like all of the social applications that work with Friend Connect, iLike's application is built using OpenSocial, and it's a great example of how a social application can foster a sense of community around a website. Any site using Friend Connect can host gadgets created by the OpenSocial developer community.
If you're a site owner who wants to begin adding social features to your website, visit Google Friend Connect. No programming is required!
If you're a developer interested in building a social application to run on the tens thousands of websites that are now using Google Friend Connect, learn more at www.opensocial.org.