I have recently seen the Wibiya website toolbar being used all over the internet. I have seen it being used on blogs and websites. One of the top article directories, Articlesbase.com, currently uses the toolbar. I am always up for trying new plugins for my blog, and thought that I could give this one a try as well.
I am not sure if this is something that will remain and prove to be a useful plugin, but I have been assured by Wibiya that this is just the tip of the iceberg. This is what I was told by Wibiya from a tweet I received from them.
Thanks for the kind words, what you are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot more coming, stay tuned.
Hopefully it proves to be worth the time I spent to download the toolbar J. On a serious note, I wanted to go over the features they are currently offering. I really can see the potential for this plugin to help any webmaster to increase interactivity with your visitors. Plus, it is totally free to download! You have to have an invite in order to get the toolbar, but all you have to do is fill out the invitation form on their site, and you will receive an invitation when they have more room. I didn’t have to wait more than a couple of hours before I got my invite, so I think they are increasing the space for people to use this plugin.
Some Features For Your Website Toolbar
- Blog Search: This allows your visitors to search your blog or Google for what they are looking for! I just set mine to search my blog. I want my visitors to stay with me as long as possible.
- Translation: This will allow people that speak another language to translate your page to their native tongue. I have tested this out in Spanish, since I speak Spanish as a second language, and found that it does a pretty good job! I can’t say how well it will work in other languages, but worth putting on your toolbar to help out those who can’t read your language very well!
- Posts Navigator (Recent and Random): You can allow your visitors to read your most recent content or have a random page for them to read. I don’t see very many people using this feature too often, but I will give it a try to see how much it is used. Most people want new content rather than something random.
- Live Notifications: I really like this feature the most! You can display short messages to your visitors about what is going on with your site. I was recently told that it was nuisance to one of my visitors. If I continue to receive this kind of feedback, I will probably turn it off!
- Facebook Community: This allows you to connect with your facebook users and quickly add messages and just what ever people have to say about your blog or website. This is your own community of facebook users.
- Facebook Fan Page: Another option to allow visitors to quickly find your Fan Page and add messages and other content to this page.
- Share Tool: Allow your visitors to share your content with the top social networks. They haven’t added very many yet, but I foresee this to be one that they will expand upon.
- RSS Feed: A way for your visitors to subscribe to your RSS Feed.
- Twitter Gadget: Able to see what is being talked about on Twitter from your blog or website. What visitors have tweeted about your content and add comments to the conversation.
Platforms You Can Use Wibiya On
- Blogger
- WordPress
- Typepad
- Any Website
Wibiya Dashboard
This is probably the only thing that I really don’t like about the Wibiya toolbar. I wish that I could control it from my own dashboard. I don’t like having to visit their site to control the setting and other options. The dashboard itself is user friendly, and walks you step by step on how to change your options. You can see how many people have used which features and change your live notifications at any time. I would just like it better if I could do it from my own dashboard.
Is Wibiya Website Toolbar Customizable?
It is extremely customizable. You can use all the mentioned features, or just a couple of them. You have 29 themes to choose from. That is the color options of the toolbar. They have tried to make this website toolbar as customizable and feature rich as possible.
I have already said this, but I really do see a lot of potential with this toolbar! Wibiya support is extremely helpful and looking for input on how to improve it. This toolbar will provide rich interactivity for your visitors. It is free to use, I would tell you to give it a try on your website and see what kind of response you get from your visitors. Within a few hours of me putting it up on my blog, I was already getting feedback about it!
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