Global Warming Widgets
Green Nature
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Over its short commercial life time, the technology driven Internet has created a broad entertainment and information sharing platform.
Fifteen years ago, for example, the idea of merging the concepts of instant gratification with the art and science of photography, gave rise to the now ubiquitous digital photography and video era, where everyone can, with relative ease, share their favorite fido pictures and videos with the rest of the world.
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Technological change also gave rise to the era of Internet gizmos and widgets that also provide the mainstream user a simple way to entertain and/or educate his or her viewers on a variety of topics.
Climate change recently caught up with the widget revolution, producing some nifty ways to spiff up a web page. The widget at the top of the page, for example, provides a flash based reminder that the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is a constant and large scale phenomena.
The widget on the right is a more static reminder that the current CO2 levels continue to exceed the 350 ppm standard that is generally considered the upper bounds of the safe range.
The third widget, presented below, provides the user with a quick and easy way to present a reader with consistently updating global warming news.
The last widget, a more complex and interactive tool, allows users a means for determining their carbon footprint in their own little corner of the world.
As Zawodny rightly notes, the world of global warming internet gizmos and gadgets does not come free of costs. Consider the case of a widget provider deciding to give up a specific widget. Now consider the case of a website with a thousand pages filled with said widgets.
Those considerations allow for the possibility of a quickly ruined one thousand page website.
So, while it's a pleasure to present some of the most recent climate change bells and whistles available for use on a website, the presentation also comes with a word to the wise suggestion.
In long term Internet thinking, the more the Internet changes, the more it stays the same. Building and maintaining a good website consists of more than adding the latest technological gizmos to web pages. It's also about providing evergreen content that can entertain and educate your readers in a way that decreases its risk of obsolescence.
Here's hoping that this page can be continuously updated to show safer, more informative and more entertaining global warming widgets.
© 2010 Patricia A. Michaels