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Jan 17 2008
Your Web Host Recommends JS-Kit, Tools For Richer Blogging
JS-Kit has transformed the simple widget into one of the most helpful blogging tools on the Web. In the past only high profile blogs could afford advanced comment and polling tools, but these refined widgets allow any blog advanced modules that are simple yet powerful. JS-Kit offers controllable and customizable ratings, polls, comments, reviews and an advanced navigation tool that can help any blog become more interactive and user friendly.
We love things that don’t suck!
Since their launch the JS-Kits tools have been installed on over 11,000 blogs and the rather viral spread of the “cool tools†is a testimony to both their effectiveness and value. The company has been reviewed many times and was ceremoniously presented at the 2007 TechCrunch40 and a sample of the rating widget resides there still. Outside the rave reviews these modules are in actuality quite amazing. Simple to install and very flexible – every one of the tools has both an intrinsic and a practical appeal. Here is the short list of widgets and their functions.
Navigator – Highlights your blog’s most popular posts, simplifies content management, lowers bounce rate and drives page views.
Reviews - This widget improves conversion rates, combines comments and ratings and enables social search for your online content.
Polls – Provides fun and useful interaction for visitors, consolidates opinion and can be used for marketing and research.
Comments – The most basic of tools is perhaps the coolest. This widget adds a social element to a blog, fosters user generated content and allows for direct communication with visitors.
Ratings – Build trust, converts visitors into readers, provides data to help make business decsions and adds still more interactive balance to a blog.
Face it, there just are not that many tools out there that are free, simple enough and add another dimension to our blogging. JS-Kit combines state-of-the-art security with advanced commenting and polling tools so that any blog can interact like the mega-sites via these cool widgets. From cross browser compatibility to moderation and a spam filter – no stone has been unturned in these developments. JS-Kit has done their homework to provide these useful and clean blog helpers. It is fun to review stuff that actually works for us rather than against us – the widget has evolved it seems – check it out and give us your vote at the top of this entry 
if you will.
Hi Mig, It’s nice to see companies like them get some much deserved recognition.
SiaL | Jan 18, 2008 | Reply
Don’t we just love people who care about people? I think we do. Everything they provide is free and quite useful for the blogs and bloggers.
Phil Butler | Jan 18, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for this, sounds interesting – I am going to try them out.
Sueblimely | Jan 18, 2008 | Reply
mig | Jan 18, 2008 | Reply
I don’t think crawlers will read the generated comments, not good for seo. Cool tool though.
Frank | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
I don’t know about that, Frank. I think we should test it before. Honestly, I don’t see why the crawlers wouldn’t read the comments. Text is text. Now about indexing them… that’s another story.
The problem I actually see with the comments widget is that there is currently no possibility for the commenter to associate a link with his name. Personally I like to follow my commenters to their sites, to see who they are. So even a nofollow link would do. I don’t care about what the search engines like or dislike. I follow.
mig | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
Hi!
JS-Kit has a RSS feed for all of the comments. With a simple DNS change you can have search engines read/index the comment data. Please see Customization #10, here:
http://js-kit.com/comments/custom.html
Khris | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
Wow, Khris, I am so pleased to see that someone of JS-kit actually took the time to answer this pertinent question. Thanks a million.
Frank, I think now you have no reason not to use JS-kit comments.
mig | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
PS: We will be implementing them here, as soon THC CEO approves.
mig | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
Hi, Mig.
I’m trying to install the js-kit comment hack on my blogspot (layouts version). I’ve followed their instructions on the FAQ page: http://js-kit.com/comments/faq.html -(Q12) to the key, but I continually get blogger’s dreaded red error message telling me that the tag needs to be closed, everytime I try to publish with the new code.
Any ideas? I’ve contacted js-kit twice in the last 48 hours and they haven’t got back to me, despite their confirmation note saying they usually reply within 12hrs.
Thanks in advance.
Billy | Feb 23, 2008 | Reply
Hi Billy, I am sorry I didn’t reply earlier… I don’t know what to tell you about the technical part of JS-kit but, if you contact Art at support@js-kit.com and explain the problem, I am sure he will be glad to help. It’s possible that the support team from JS-kit has too much to deal with as they get about 200 new users each day, but you can be sure that they will answer your questions. They always do. I hope this helps.
What I think is that the problem is that the script is not closed. Try adding < /script > after < script src="http://js-kit.com/comments.js" >
Tell me if this worked.
mig | Feb 24, 2008 | Reply
Hi, Mig. Thanks very much for the reply here, and the email. I tried closing the tag, but still recieved the red error message (I’ve emailed you the error report wording).
I will now try emailing Art, to see if I can get a reply.
Thanks again.
Billy | Feb 24, 2008 | Reply
Hi, great post and i love this tool too
Tinh | Mar 17, 2008 | Reply
Great post, JS-Kit is a great tool! Is your comment widget done using JS-kit? If so, would you mind sharing the source html so I can see how to customize it? The JS-kit help page hasn’t be sufficient. Thanks!
Britton | Mar 28, 2008 | Reply
Hi Britton,
no, we do not use JS-Kit comment widget yet, but we plan to. We’ll write a new blog entry about that when we release the blog with the new features.
Mig
mig | Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
Ah good, it sounds interesting – I will test it out, thanks.
Gulet Cruise | Apr 4, 2009 | Reply
JS-Kit seems like a useful tool particularly the polls, comments, reviews and an advanced navigation tools – I will check it and see we could benefit from using it on our wordpress website blog, thanks for promoting it
roxboure | Apr 4, 2009 | Reply