The Problem with Chicklets
I love the fact that some aggregators offer graphics for site owners to proudly display on their pages. The problem is: every one of them is ugly as hell, and when you try to mash ‘em all together, they get even uglier. Just what I’ve always wanted to do – throw a dozen images of various sizes onto my Web page to make it look like I designed it in 1996. We’ve done it with the feed icon, we’re trying to do it with the OPML icon, so why not get the aggregator publishers on board with some kind of standard chicklet size or spec? Argh! I’m not saying they have to be the same color or anything – but at least the same size, please? Is that too much to ask here, or does someone have to do it for these companies instead? Can I get key people from Bloglines, NewsGator, MyYahoo, Rojo, and Google in the loop? If we can get the top online aggregators, then perhaps the rest will follow suit. C’mon, I’m looking for key individuals here – this isn’t rocket science. I’m begging – PLEADING – that you agree on a single size. If the advertising networks agree on 468×60, then why can’t the aggregators agree on YYxZZ?!
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4 Comments
Jared Spool
July 8th, 2006
at 2:35pm
Maybe I don’t get it. It’s your site. You’re advertising their service for free.
If this is a big deal, just commission a graphic artist (or use a contest site like Design Outpost) to do great looking, same size chicklets for the services *you* feel like advertising and making easy for your readers.
Nobody says you *have* to use their chicklets, do they?
Randy Charles Morin
July 8th, 2006
at 6:54pm
Just one problem, the RSS FeedIcon never solved the chicklet problem. Yahoo! stil uses their own icon. Most every else too. Still, I entirely support this initiative.
Joe Anderson
July 10th, 2006
at 1:58pm
Why not just not use chicklets!
George
December 14th, 2006
at 11:08pm
I don’t understand…I like the chilcklets. I think they look cool and colorful. Adds a little bit of extra color to the blog and draws attention so people will bookmark your site.
People I know don’t know about social bookmarking yet so it is a good thing that they are visible so people who are not technical can learn.