Monday, January 11, 2010

BlogFest 2010 Task 3 Embedding Content

Well, I should have done this in the first place; it's so easy to create a blog using Blogger, just over one minute, quicker if I didn't explore all the templates available. Reason I created a new one is because I was having issues with task 3, to be precise embedding external content. Let's hope Blogger will be better behaved.


Task 3 - Embedded Files
The requirement for this task is the embedding of external content into the blog. Once again this should be another exciting exercise. External content is usually imported into a blog using a snippet`
of html code that is embedded within the page on the blog. Many websites support embedding of their widgets, video and other media and generally offer the code free of charge. However I have noticed that Google recently has started to advise that some of their maps do not display unless you use Google Chrome , a web browser developed through open source over the last few years. Apparently Chrome holds 5% of the market and wonder if people have encountered any problems with it.

I have also discovered that me.edu blog may not be capable of handling embedded external code.
So far I have tried Google Maps, Countries visited from World66 website and videos from YouTube.

So after creating my new blogger account, first thing I tried of course is including the World66 map of places I visited and hej presto here it is:




create your own visited country map

OK, next on my list is a short video. I decided to add a video about the Grand Harbour of the island of Malta, (ts people awarded the George Cross medal by King George VI for their bravery during World War 2. The Grand Harbour was withness to most of the sea and air battles.




Task #3 - Widgets
Widgets - those small "engaging, and useful applications that allow users to turn personal content into dynamic web apps that can be shared on just about any website" (Wikipedia).

Ideally these should be placed to the left or right of the main content of a blog.
I have attached a translator from Babylon to the right panel of this blog.

Well that's about it. I have spent too much time on this task first due to issues with my previous blog, and now having to learn a new environment.


5 comments:

  1. Well done for persevering Nick. Blogging can certainly be frustrating at times. I have used a few different blogging environments in the last couple of years and they all have their peculiarities. I like the Babylon widget. It would be a good one for the Languages OzProject.

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  2. Well done Nick on persisting. I love the Malta video - a place I'd love to go. I have a Google translator widget running on my MYSTERIES in PARADISE blog - they tell me it does a passable translation job - you might like to check it for me, and let me know. You'll also see lots of other widgets running on that blog. It was a pity the me.edu blog wouldn't work for this exercise, but we are accumulating some good evidence of what needs improvement.

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  3. Thanks Kerrie and kin. Indeed all blog environs have their pecularitiies. Blogger does seem restricted in the width it can accept. I note both Ali's and my World66 maps has been truncated.

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  4. Your blog is looking great Nick. I have written another post on your me blog. you have picked up skills in Blogger really quickly!
    Cheers, Caroline

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  5. It is amazing what a change in platform can do! I find blogger very easy to use and there are quite a few different ways too post to your blog - via email, plugins in your browser and bookmarking services like diigo. I hope blogging here is going to be a whole lot more enjoyable for you!

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