14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook doesn't really need any help in widening its reach or spreading the word but more exposure can't hurt either. Recently, the social network has introduced several widgets like the Fan Box and Live Stream Box and is now furthering its efforts with two new widgets for bloggers and site owners everywhere. Facebook has also launched a new widget page to house them all.
The new widget repository has just five of them available at the moment but even with the limited selection, there are some innovative ones to choose from. The two fresh widgets are pretty basic but they should have been a long time coming. The new Facebook Page Badge is a way for page administrators to share the information on any other web site they want similar to the existing Profile Badge.
The other fresh widget, the Photo Badge, seems even more obvious and long overdue as, despite not being intended as such, Facebook is now the biggest photo-sharing site in the world with no signs of stopping and with little hope of anyone else getting close soon. The widget in itself is pretty bare-boned and self-explanatory, it just serves photos from the user's public albums with the customization options being how many photos to show at any time and where to place the Facebook logo.
The most interesting widgets though are the already existing ones the Fan Box and especially the Live Stream Box. The Fan Box was originally launched in July and allows fans to connect to Facebook Pages from other sites like a band's official website or blog. The widget shows the status updates from the fans and optionally their Facebook profile photos. The Live Stream Box is even more interesting, acting as an instant chat widget of sorts. This allows websites, like live video streaming services, to add chat functionality to their broadcasts or events without requiring a dedicated feature and without the need for the users to set up new accounts.