Basic Blogger Gadgets

Blogger offers many different gadgets that can be added to your blog and customize your layout.

Defining Gadget and Widget

The terms gadgets and widgets may be used interchangeably. They are defined as "a device or control that is very useful for a particular job."

In the case of a blog, they are applications or tools that you can add to your blog to add different functions (e.g. RSS Feeds, Calendars or Search capabilities) and to customize the layout or display of a blog or webpage.

The basic blogger gadgets include:

• Pages - Displays a list of stand-alone pages on your blog.
• Followers - Displays a list of users who follow your blog
• Search Box - Search over your blog, your blogroll, and everything you've linked to.
• HTML/JavaScript - Add third-party functionality or other code to your blog.
• Text - Add some words to your blog - like a welcome message - with our rich text editor.
• AdSense - Earn revenue by displaying relevant ads on your blog.
• Picture - Add a picture from your computer or from somewhere else on the web.
• Slideshow - Add a slideshow of your photos to your blog.
• Video Bar - Display clips from YouTube and Google Video for your readers to watch without leaving the page.
• Poll - Survey your visitors by adding a poll to your blog.
• Blog List - Show off what you read with a blogroll of your favorite blogs.
• Link List - Add a collection of your favorite sites, blogs, or web pages.
• List - Add a list of your favorite books, movies, or anything you like.
• Feed - Add content from an RSS or Atom feed to your blog.
• Newsreel - Automatically add current headlines from Google News to your blog.
• Labels - Show all the labels of posts in your blog.
• Subscription Links - Let your readers easily subscribe to your blog with popular feed readers.
• Logo - Choose from a variety of Blogger logos to add to your page.
• Profile - Display information about yourself.
• Blog Archive - Display links to older posts.
• Page Header - Display your blog's title and description.

For this week I've added the "Search This Blog" function to the Creating Wellness Blog. You can look for older blogs posts by looking under the Blog Archive or by using the "Search This Blog" search by Google.

Featured Gadgets
Under Featured Gadgets you can add in gadgets to link you blog to other popular online resources link flickr, Twitter, TwitPics, Picasa, YouTube and Amazon.

Be aware that these gadgets have been developed by third parties, which may bring in their advertising to your blog.

For how to install a Blogger Gadget, see the post on "Adding Gadgets to Blogger."