Free ratings and reviews plugin... from google.

[gabrielcrowe]

http://www.google.com/friendconnect/

This is Google's new widget based social tool.

It allows you to add some pretty neat widgets to any site, Actinic or otherwise. One of these cool widgets is a ratings widget.

I have implemented it to replace the simple comments tool I wrote on http://www.skateasylum.co.uk/ It took me less than 15 mins, to put everything in place, very well put together.

They have chat, messageboard and other neat toys, as well as any plugin from the opensocial network.

The site widgets let your customers use their yahoo, google, aol or openid, amongst other logins and passwords, to log into your site, and participate.

So, lets see some implimentations, and if anyone can make any cool widgets!

oh, btw:
widget, widget, widget, widget, widget, widget, widget, widget.

[pinbrook]

looks cool Gabe, i think alot of site could benefit from adding social networking features such as the offerings from google, amazon wishlist and facebook pages. Use these 3 effectively and you will have much less reliance of google serps.

[Golf Tee Warehouse]

Does the Ratings Widget require the reviewer to have an existing account or sign in or can anybody leave a review

[Kirk]

The Internet - Soon to be renamed "Googlenet".

Widget. In 1982, my teacher in business class always used that word for what I thought (at the time) was a fictional product. Maybe she knew more than she was letting on...but if she was so smart, why did we have to detail a business plan that included building a factory for widgets?

[gabrielcrowe]

a setting in your google will allow anonymous posting.

[Darren B]

I have been playing with this aswell, after Gabe pointed me to it yesterday, http://www.kitesrus.co.uk/acatalog/HQ_Symphony_1.8.html however i have had problems with it on multiple pages seems to only show once for me

Be interested to know what others come up with, has some natty features and im sure this is going to grow, and extension to the social networking that is likely to produce some even more impressive widgets

[Darren B]

OK multiple product pages have an issue with this, namely due to google does not like the use of div-1233251796728 more than once. Now this number seems to be random generated everytime you click generate code.

So how can we work around this, well the long winded way is to make multiple copies of your product layout and insert the different code in each one, the problem is you have to remember to change each product layout on multiple product pages.

now with a bit of php i have generated this number randomly (well a different number each time) the problem i have is i have no idea how i can insert this number or if it is even possible to, into the div or if it would actually work?

the number needs to be inserted <div id="div-1233161904223" style="width:575px;border:1px solid #cccccc;"></div>

anyone have any ideas or another way of doing this.

D

[Rich Brady]

I've not looked at this at all Darren, but could you use the ProductID variable?

[RuralWeb]

This is the same problem that the amazon universal wish list has with multi product pages.

I have been hearing that Google is shutting down some of its free services so I personally would be wary of using this as reviews are valuable and I would hate to loose them if G decided to close the service.

[Darren B]

I've not looked at this at all Darren, but could you use the ProductID variable?

Ok this code appears in the javascript aswell, but i all ready user ProductRef, this is another part of the code so google can already see the difference between products, just seems a little odd. Perhaps there is another reason for the is number?

I have been hearing that Google is shutting down some of its free services so I personally would be wary of using this as reviews are valuable and I would hate to loose them if G decided to close the service.

Maybe, but the review part of the google friends beta is only a small part of it this has the potential for lots of other things in social networking. Time will tell i guess

[RuralWeb]

this has the potential for lots of other things in social networking. Time will tell i guess

It looks great and I will certainly be adding it to some sites.

[jont]

Ok this code appears in the javascript aswell, but i all ready user ProductRef, this is another part of the code so google can already see the difference between products

Set it up with 2 different variables aProductId and bProductId ... fix an alpha character to the front to avoid killing scripts with numerals... this will generate unique id's for all products so multi product pages are not an issue.

[RuralWeb]

Just thrown it onto a new site Im playing with at http://www.affordablegroup.co.uk/kar...M_CLEANER.html

[Darren B]

Set it up with 2 different variables aProductId and bProductId ... fix an alpha character to the front to avoid killing scripts with numerals... this will generate unique id's for all products so multi product pages are not an issue.

OK this is google code so nothing is simple, the numbers are generated by google you customise your apperance and generate the code, it has a couple of parts to it. You have the option to put your id in for identification. You cant replace googles code but you can add your part numbers to it, i user ProductReference and the code then uses the part number, so each review is asscociated to that product.

The problem i see is google wont display the review boxes if its number is repeated, so it works for spp's and only the 1st product on multiple product pages will have a review box, but wont show for the other products because its code has already been used.

What i was after was a way of generating a 13 digit number and inserting it into googles code, i can generate a random 13 digit number with php but dont know if its possible to insert it without breaking the gogle code

<!-- Include the Google Friend Connect javascript library. -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/friendconnect/script/friendconnect.js"></script>
<!-- Define the div tag where the gadget will be inserted. -->
<div id="div-1233259189178" style="width:282px;border:1px solid #cccccc;"></div>
<!-- Render the gadget into a div. -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var skin = {};
skin['BORDER_COLOR'] = '#cccccc';
skin['ENDCAP_BG_COLOR'] = '#e0ecff';
skin['ENDCAP_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['ENDCAP_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['ALTERNATE_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_BG_COLOR'] = '#ffffff';
skin['CONTENT_LINK_COLOR'] = '#0000cc';
skin['CONTENT_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_LINK_COLOR'] = '#7777cc';
skin['CONTENT_SECONDARY_TEXT_COLOR'] = '#666666';
skin['CONTENT_HEADLINE_COLOR'] = '#333333';
skin['DEFAULT_COMMENT_TEXT'] = '- add your review here -';
skin['HEADER_TEXT'] = 'Ratings';
skin['POSTS_PER_PAGE'] = '5';
google.friendconnect.container.setParentUrl('/' /* location of rpc_relay.html and canvas.html */);
google.friendconnect.container.renderReviewGadget(
 { id: 'div-1233259189178',
   site: '08928253217638742519',
   'view-params':{"disableMinMax":"false","scope":"ID","docId":"ProductReference","startMaximized":"true"}
 },
  skin);
</script>

this is the review code you insert

Hope that makes more sense

D

ps looks Good Mal

[RuralWeb]

It's an impressive widget and will have andy at codepath hitting the drink!!

I can see I'm going to be busy adding it to lots of sites over the next few weeks!