Widgets do have issues

I've updated my last.fm widget and, previously, added a Feedburner widget. Both are neat stuff.

The last.fm widget is Flash 4.0 I think and caused a print preview crash (was in IE6) on another PC for me today. That may well be availability - problem caused by an old Flash installation which the Network isn't ready to upgrade yet

Blog's waiting for Feedburner to load as I type, at Internet peaktime. Waiting, waiting ... make tea ...

I can find myself waiting for YouTube elements to load too.

This might be me and might be my network right now but the Amnesty widget, coming via them, not a third party, is showing me 'unavailable'. It's happened before. Too popular?

This is one of the less stated problems with widgets — availability and accessibility (in its widest sense).

I've previously dropped widgets (like Chimp-o-matic) which kept holding up pages (or the right-hand column); the market, especially the mass-market of bloggers, will be just as ruthless. Plus decisions will be as much about 'how much do I really need this?' as 'is there an alternative?'

Postscript: as I look at sorting a tagcloud, I notice this ... tagcloud.com > Our dirty little secret: that's all been done on one single server. Many people have written us frustrated that we haven't been able to keep up with the demand, and they've been correct. We're happy to announce that we are now sponsored ...