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Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Google Books, News Widgets

Google released a book bar as part of their AJAX Search API. You can configure the bar with a comma-separated list of keywords. I used the word “google" for the result below:*

I guess what’s missing here is an additional incentive for webmasters to include this book bar – like a commission when ads on Google Book search are clicked, or the ability to enter an Amazon/ Barnes & Noble affiliate code in case a book is sold. Right now, I don’t see an advantage to what you can do with the Amazon API.

Another new feature for the AJAX Search API is the news bar. Again, this bar is configurable through keywords (and you can also toggle more options via API-scripting). Using the keyword “google” we get these headlines, which fade in and out:

*Google doesn’t override all CSS with inline styles, which causes some layout problems.

[Via the Google AJAX API blog.]

Edit: Unfortunately, these widgets locked IE6, as reported by several of you (I was also able to reproduce this using BrowserPool.de). I replaced the dynamic scripts with static images above. [Thanks Brinke, Tony and Tue!]

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