Topic: Newest Widgets

I'm still not happy with how new widgets are listed on the chumby.com site.

I can go to the 'dashboard' and see the four latest and on the browse pages there is a side bar with the 10 latest.

From the "My Channels" page there is a 'Newest' category with the same 10 latest, but if you select the 'Newest' category from the menu available on a widget description page you get a different list!

If I've been away for a few days then then where am I to go to see what I might have missed?

Re: Newest Widgets

When you selected the "newest" category, did you also sort by "newest"?

Re: Newest Widgets

This is also a minor annoyance for me.  It would be nice if there were a quick way to view a more comprehensive list of, say, the 50 or even 100 most recently added widgets.  Or could there be some sort of RSS feed that lists the newest 50 in the (reverse) order they were added?

Duane, are you saying there is a way to view more than 10 widgets from the "newest" category?  I don't see where you can sort by "newest".

Chumby birthdate: 10/11/07

Re: Newest Widgets

The problem is that "Newest" isn't one of the categories on the Browse Widgets page.

But if you pick a widget, then hit the Category drop-down just under the widget name, you can pick "Newest".

This will list the "Newest" category, but ordered by rating. So, now, if you choose sort by "Newest", you'll actually get the full list of newest widgets, ordered by newness. Although, you'll still have to page through them 5 at a time.

This should be much, much easier to do. The page itself, ordered in this fashion, should be one click, not click, choose a drop-down, choose a drop-down again. And there really ought to be an option to show more than 5 at a time. This isn't hard to implement.

Re: Newest Widgets

Here's the URL for the newest widgets:
http://www.chumby.com/guide/category/Ne … der=newest

Re: Newest Widgets

Here I would expect a behaviour which is common in on-line shops: when browsing the widget categories, the Newest / Most popular / ... column would display only items appropriate for the current category (like "10 newest in Shopping"). I believe people do check their favourite categories most of the time.

Re: Newest Widgets

Though not entirely on the topic, I have been wondering how the Most Popular, Highest Rated, and Chumby Picks actually work.  It appears that they don't change much, if at all.  Are they automated? or hand picked?

And regarding Chumby Picks it appears that 99.9% of the widgets are either Chumby Ind., or partners.  I can understand this if it's just something you "have" to do in regards with your content deals, but I would have to say there are some other nice widgets in there that get lost in the fray.  Throw us 3rd party devs a bone every once in awhile smile

And to be clear, I am not saying that my widgets necessarily fall into that category, I'll leave that judgment up to the community at large, but I see some other really cool widgets as well, and it would certainly make that page seem a bit more active.

Color me curious.

CB

Re: Newest Widgets

The "most popular" is based on the number of channels across all user to which the widget has been added.
The "highest rated" is based on the ratings that users have selected for the widgets.

I'm not surprised that either of those lists don't change that frequently - in particular, a new widget would be at a disadvantage compared to an older widget in the "popularity" listing simply because it hasn't been around long enough to get added to as many channels.  However, we've seen some new widgets surpass older ones pretty quickly in some categories.  We may want to take a look at some alternative algorithms that might give newer high-quality widgets some better chance to rise above the noise.

As far as "chumby picks" and "featured widgets" - they're chosen by people here and may occasionally reflect certain business relationships, although many, if not most, of them are chosen simply on the basis of coolness.  For instance, the Cuckoo Clock and World Wide Weather Guy are unaffiliated third party widgets by regular developers.

The best way to get to be a featured widget is to steer clear of the more "corporate" categories like News, Sports and Entertainment - for instance, I pretty much own the "Weird" category (the three featured widgets are mine), but that's not because of any undue influence by me - I simply take advantage of the otherwise inconvenient fact that I'm weird.  If I were aiming to be a featured widget, I'd make widgets in the more wild and woolly categories such as Weird, Clocks, Webcams, etc. - practically all of the featured widgets are done by individual developers.

That's not to say you can't get to be a featured widget in those other categories - it's just that the bar is pretty high at this point.

9 (edited by cbreeze 2008-08-27 15:18:44)

Re: Newest Widgets

Thanks Duane.

I would agree that some type of "weight" based on time would be a benefit to the Most Popular and Highest Rated.  Obviously Picks and Featured are going to be based on open interpretation.  I just can't help but think by saying "the bar is pretty high" in some sense relates to a having a business relationship with Chumby (which is totally understandable), because though it is certainly my own opinion, I would think the bar could be raised a little higher on some of those widgets.  I am certainly not trying to discredit anyones hard work, it's just my opinion.

Anyway, thanks for the info, good to know.