The data is provided by Twitter’s API and the call can be a bit expensive (takes a few seconds to get a response). For this reason, the results are cached for quick response. The caching also helps the widget scale better and minimises the number of API calls the site makes ensuring we don’t hit any API limits.  Our peak usage so far was around 60-70 widget calls per minute and our server hardly registered any load, so we’re happy that we should be able to take on a dramatically increase load. Bring on!

Time to crack out out our Mizuno drivers and celebrate by sinking a few on the golf course. Well, actually we have lots of plans for Tweetburn, so maybe I’ll just stay in coding huh? By the way, have you noticed that you can now change your size and colours and personalise the tagline on the widget?

You might have noticed that my Tweetroll (in my sidebar) has been changing colours recently. Well, you guessed it, we’re almost ready to release the next version. The main thrust behind this new version has been allowing greater customisability and conformance. Hyder has been improving the design to make sure it works with more and more blogs. I’ve been working on customisation options, allowing you to select one of a variety of sizes, and specify whatever colours you want to match your blog.

Writing presentation widgets is interesting. You have no idea how hard it is to deploy something that lives in an ecosystem you don’t control, just like trying to merchandise Sferra linens in a food market. The great thing about the delivery mechanism we’re using (Javascript/CSS) is that it gives us fine control over what gets deployed and the ability to resolve issues instantaneously for everyone who’s running the widget.

So watch this space, there’ll be more info soon!

photo credit: erix!

Hyder and I have just completed putting the finishing touches on TweetRoll and have made it available to the world. It’s a widget you can add to your blog, website or any other webpage which lets you flaunt your Twitter details and show some of people you have started following recently. Adding the widget to your page is as simple as adding a single line of Javascript. The widget then runs off our server, asks Twitter for your details and presents them on a widget similar to the one shown alongside.

It’s my first initiative playing with the Twitter API and I’m pretty pleased with how quickly it’s come together. The Twitter API is pretty easy to use and thanks to Hyder‘s mastery of CSS the net result is an attractive looking widget that should look quite good on most people’s blog.

This is still the first public drop of the widget, so please feel free to drop me any comments as to what you’d like improved and what features you’d like to see. You can either leave them here or follow me on Twitter.

You’ll notice a whole mixture of different content, from news to weather reports, to friend updates. And if you’re not following me on Twitter yet, start now. I found Twitter a bit like putting money into savings accounts, the more you put in, the more you can take out!

P.S. The only problem with my sidebar is that I’m really conscious that I don’t want to clutter it with too many things. What do you think, is it overdone ?

Interested? Check out DVDPlay new DVD rental widget and add it to your site.

Here’s the press release

DVDPlay Launches Widget and Gives Away an Apple iPhone and Nintendo Wii

San Jose, CA – April 10, 2007 – What can using DVDPlay’s new widget do for you? Along with offering your readers information on weekly DVD movie releases you can score some coveted gadgets in a contest that launches today.

In exchange for a bit of real estate on your webpage or blog DVDPlay, a Silicon Valley-based movie rental kiosk company, is giving away a chance to win the highly anticipated Apple iPhone or a Nintendo Wii. Folks who would like to enter the contest must visit dvdplay.com to add the small widget and register for the contest.

“We are always looking for new and exciting ways to raise awareness and introduce people to our service” said Jason B. Hart, online marketing manager at DVDPlay. “What better way to promote a new technology then by using another new technology to add value to the online community”.

The widget, hosted by Widgetbox, is an animated slide show of new release DVDs for the week and is automatically updated every Tuesday, when new release movies are available to the public for rent or purchase.

“The DVDPlay widget is a great addition for any movie lover’s blog, website or profile and we are delighted to provide the widget syndication, management and tracking for DVDPlay,” said Tracy Pizzo, director of business development at Widgetbox.

This real-time informational widget is easy to add, just go here (http://www.dvdplay.com/widget) click ‘Get Widget’, and choose where you want to put it. It is available for website, social network and blog installation or you can choose to add it to your Google, Pageflakes, or NetVibes home page.

A widget is a small piece of code provides value-added information and helps to jazz up a website, blog or other Web 2.0 community. Webmasters and bloggers use widgets to give their readers and visitors information like the weather forecast or gas prices. In this case, blog readers and website visitors can see all of the latest movie releases on DVDs.

The contest kicks off today and will run until June 11, the day the iPhone is slated to be available for purchase. The widget is available now for installing. Once the widget is up on a page, webmasters and bloggers can register for the contest at the DVDPlay website’s contest page (www.dvdplay.com).

About DVDPlay
DVDPlay’s (www.dvdplay.com) easy to use, credit card enabled kiosks hold more than 500 DVDs, ensuring that there will be plenty of the hottest new movie releases available. Movies can be rented in less than 60 seconds. There are more than 1,000 DVDPlay kiosks located in 35 states and Canada, with approximately 3,000 expected to be deployed by the end of 2007. DVDPlay’s kiosks are networked and powered by patent-pending software that enables dynamic pricing, promotions, inventory management, advertising and movie trailer insertions as well as the capture and measurement of key business metrics. DVDPlay kiosks meet all federal and state regulations including, UL, FCC and ADA certification.

About Widgetbox
Widgetbox is the leading managed syndication network for web widgets. Widgetbox’s mission is to create a thriving web widget economy by becoming the trusted resource for creating, distributing, promoting, tracking and monetizing widgets. The Widgetbox gallery is the world’s largest marketplace for widgets and the Widgetbox Syndication Platform™ is Widgetbox’s exclusive backend infrastructure that provides the most comprehensive set of tools for the management of your web widget strategy. Widgetbox serves both the producers of widgets, including the largest, online distributors as well as individual developers, and the consumers of widgets. For more information, please see www.widgetbox.com.