6 simple tools for creating Google Plus profile badge for your site
Google+ is in many ways the hottest social network in these days. It’s reported to have gotten 25 million users faster than any other social network, and has already seen a lot of engagement from popular users. Whether it’s found a place in your social networking life or not, Google+ can definitely be another great way to promote your products and site, just like Facebook, Twitter, and more. While Facebook has an official badge creator, Google+ is yet to provide the same. In this article, we’ll have a look at some Google Plus profile widget creators that can help you get one in seconds.
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| google + red logo, google + red Favicon, google + redesign |
(1) Google Profile Card
The first tool you can consider is Google’s own profile card. It is the profile card you’ll see if you hover the mouse cursor over a Google user’s name in some Google web sites. It shows the name of the user, his/her avatar, descriptions and links to personal web pages. This is how you can put it on your site or blog:
(1) Open your Google+ profile page. Copy down your Google profile ID which is contained in the URL of your profile page. It could be a string of numbers or a customized ID.
(2) Open a new browser tab and enter the following URL to preview your Google profile card. Replace [Your Google Profile ID] with the profile ID you just found in the previous step. You should find something like this:
(3) In your site or blog, insert the following codes:
<iframe src=”http://www.google.com/s2/u/0/widgets/ProfileCard?uid=[Your Google Profile ID]” width=”100%” height=”125″ scrolling=”no” style=”border:0px solid”></iframe>
Again, remember to replace [Your Google Profile ID] with your own profile ID. If you did the above correctly, you should see something like this:
(2) Widgets Plus
Widgets Plus is something more powerful. You can find a live sample at my own blog. It shows not only your name and avatar, but a button to invite people adding you into their Google+ circles and a rotating list of your recent posts on Google+ (optional). The configuration is simple and should takes less than 1 minute:
(1) Go to http://widgetsplus.com/
(2) Click the Get Widget button
(3) Enter your Google profile ID in the Google+ ID box. If you want to customize the look and feel of the widget, just change the default settings contained in the six tabs. Some important settings you may want to tweak include the language, width and font, include update feed, title of the widget and button size.
(4) Click the Get Code button to generate the code.
(5) Copy the code and paste to where you want the widget be shown
That’s it. If you want to check the effect of this widget, click the Statistics tab on the Widgets Plus official page and enter your Google profile ID. From there you can see the impression count of this profile widget and the conversion rate.
(3) Gglpls
This web site is more than just a Google profile widget generator. It is also a Google+ people directory where you can register your personal information and search for other Google+ users by location and hobbies.
The widget Gglpls offers puts more emphasis on feed syndication. Other than your nice looking avatar and name, the remaining real estate of this widget all goes to displaying your recent posts on Google+.
(2) Enter your Google profile ID in the text box named Paste Google+ ID here… and click Create my Widget. A preview of your widget is shown right under. Copy the code in the text box and paste to your web site.
(3) For those of you want a unique widget, you can customize the widget’s dimensions, background and text colors on the right hand column.
(4) Google Plus Profile Widget
This widget generator is relatively simple but it provides Javascript and iFrame versions.
(1) Go to http://plus.scriptrr.com/
(2) Enter your Google profile ID, select the width of the widget and choose the color of the top title bar.
(3) Hit the Get widget button. You can preview the widget and copy and paste the code to your web site.
(4) The default widget does not show your Google+ posts. If you want a widget with activity feed, click the Activity Feeds link on the web page instead.
If you run a WordPress blog, you can forget the above and use the WordPress plug-in instead. You can download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/scriptrr-google-profile/) or search for “Scriptrr Google + Profile widget” in the Plugins panel in WordPress.
(5) GoogleCards
GoogleCards is a WordPress plugin that displays a modified Google profile card. Install it in the following way:
(1) Download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/googlecards/) and upload it to your WordPress blog in the Plugins panel. Alternatively, search for “googleCards” right in the Plugins panel. Activate the plugin once installed.
(2) Go to Appearance > Widgets, add the googleCards widget to the sidebar.
(3) Click on the widget, enter your Google profile ID and choose a title for this widget.
(6) Google Plus Widget
This latest widget looks like the previous one except a slight difference in the “Add to Circles” button. Installation is pretty much the same like googleCards.
(1) Download it from the WordPress Plugin Directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-plus-widget/) and upload it to your WordPress blog in the Plugins panel. Or you can search for “Google Plus Widget” in the Plugins panel. Activate the plugin once installed.
(2) Go to Appearance > Widgets, add Google Plus Widget to the sidebar.
(3) Click on the widget and enter your Google profile ID and the title of the widget.
Summary
These tools offer more or less the same features, the main difference lies in the appearances. My experience told me that these widgets would not give my blog a strong boost, but they certainly helped me to enhance my social proof. Try and let us know what you think!
This was a guest post by Peter Mugi, a tech writer at Cloud High Club. He’s a fan of Google+ and ChromeOS, and believe that a browser is all you need to be productive. Feel free to follow him inGoogle+, and ask any questions you’ve got about Google+ in the comments below!
original article from appstorm
