Web widgets (aka Widgets) are little software that webmasters can use on their websites to showcase certain functionalities or achieve certain goals. A popular example of this would be advertisements you see on websites, whether its google adsense, media.net, infolinks or any other monetizing network, after approving a website, they will usually give a small code to put in the website and that code will show the ads. All webmasters love to put that ads widget on their website, but web widgets are not limited to advertisements only. There are thousands of other useful web widgets that webmasters, bloggers and web developers are using every day.
You must have seen a voting poll on some website, a local area weather forecast box, a google map showing the location of the company office or store in the contact page, a simple visitor counter on a blog, all of these are examples of common web widgets people use on their websites.
Web is always on a revolution, changing every second, millions of websites are being created every year, thousands of web developers are always on a surge to make something new, useful and more efficient than before. So I’ve dig up some data from the Statistics Websites to know the World Wide Web (Remember I told you, data can be a big inspiration when looking for new content) and come up with the following list of top 10 most used web gadgets in all of the websites.
These top 10 most used web widgets are not only to tell you how web developers are using these small programs to enhance their websites efficiently, but also these must solve your queries of best widgets for your website or must use widgets for your new or upcoming website. Being used by thousands of webmasters and on millions of websites, these widgets are tested and you shouldn’t have any second thoughts on using them according to your needs, as you’ll also be finding huge guides on their usage and also support for any problem you may face when using these web widgets.
These widgets are in no particular order, I’ve placed them according to my recommendations for you and not solely based on the stats of popularity.
1. Google Font API
No surprises here, the most used widget in the top 10 most used web widgets list is Google Font API. Its the smallest piece of code (just one line) to add on your HTML page head section and voila! You can use all the prettiest and high quality fonts from Google on your web application. Here is their Getting Started page for you to start with Google Fonts.
2. Font Awesome
I am using Font Awesome in every site I am building. It has been used by 13,114,543 websites in the past 5 days only. You can imagine the popularity of this top web widget. Again with a small footprint, easy to install and awesome icons to use for the graphics in your website. Most web developers have fallen in love with this one, especially with the rise of responsive web design. Using these icons instead of the retro graphics, also enhances the load speed of your web pages. Easy to style with CSS, infinite scalability, perfect for retina display and they are free. It is just Awesome!
3. Twemoji
Everyone loves Emojis right? This library of Twitter Emojis on github is being used by more than 2.3 Million currently live websites. So if your website has a chat option, then this widget from the top 10 most popular web widgets should definitely be used there. Twitter Emoji for Everyone has more than 2600 emojis and the best part is, the library comes with a CDN support, so you enjoy it with adding just a single line of code and without putting some extra load on your server.
4. AddThis
Social media plays a pivotal role in success of a business and website. Whether its direct marketing on social media or social sharing to get the words out, it not only boosts your reach but also helps immensely in SEO for your website. So obviously, adding the share option to your content pages in your website is a must now. Although there are many widgets that let you do that, it is AddThis is by far the most popular one on the Internet and is being used by the most. Maybe not in WordPress sites that much because better alternatives are present, but overall this has the highest numbers in websites using the widget. So whether you use AddThis or any other, thing to get from this is social sharing widget is a must for almost every website you want people to know about.
5. reCAPTCHA
If you’re site has a “Submit” button, then you probably need to verify who is pressing that button, a human or a naughty bot who might be trying to spam you out of your comfy chair. Spam was and still is one of the most annoying things that webmasters have to deal with. But Google’s free reCAPTCHA solves the problem for you, easy to install on your page and goes about its business very quietly. So obviously it is being used a lot.
6. Typekit
Another one for Fonts? Yes, because some people just don’t settle and want absolute best for their websites. Adobe Typekit provides more than 1000 families of font styles to use on web, computers and other devices for your files. Although they do have a free plan to connect the library with your website and try out some fonts, this is a premium service that you have to subscribe for a monthly or yearly fee. Being used by more than 1.5 Million websites in the past week tells you how many professional webmasters and big clients, don’t settle for anything less than perfect.
7. Facebook Like Button
Everyone is one Facebook these days, so creating a Facebook page for the website, is one of the first things webmasters do. So people have become accustom to pressing the like button whenever they see something worthy of it, and why not give them that option on your website as well? Facebook like button is number 7 in the top 10 most used web widgets and there is no surprises that it has been used by more than 2 Million websites in the past week.
8. Yoast Plugins
I think I mentioned in my stats websites post that WordPress powers more than 28% of the total websites on Internet. And more than 4.5 Million of those are using Yoast SEO plugin. If you’re a WordPress user, most certainly you’re using it as well and if not, you’re missing out buddy. If SEO is important to you, Yoast SEO is the best plugin to help you out.
9. Pinterest
Pinterest has become one of the most popular sites with over 150 Million active users every month. The stat that amazed me is that 81% of Pinterest users are actually female. Nevertheless its a great resource for SEO, getting huge traffic and making your website a viral sensation. So Pinterest widget is now one of the most popular ones (exactly at number 9) among webmasters.
10. WordPress Plugins
I know what you’re thinking, there are thousands of them so which one? Well, I’m adding all of them in here because that is how I got it in the statistics. Number 10 in top most used web widgets is WP Plugins, being used in over 14 Million websites in the past week only, WP plugins are obviously the need of every WordPress website, and as there are way too many choices, webmasters can choose their favorites from a huge WP library. So you can let us know in the comments below that which WordPress Plugin is your top web widget?
So which of these top 10 most used web widgets are you using already? And which ones are your favorite? And please mention other useful widgets that you use most often.