My Twitter badge goes live Mar21 '07

I've "twitterized" the front page of this site, after a few weeks of debate. You'll notice my Twitter thoughts on the upper right, above the "What I'm reading today..." section.

First off, I've discussed Twitter before, and I still stand by my positive opinions. I did, however, have a small issue with posting yet another JavaScript badge onto my site.

It seems this is a current trend that can't be avoided (at least, not avoided painlessly), so I am going to just do it, for now. I already have a couple JavaScript badges on my front page: the Google Reader Shared Items ("What I'm reading today..."), and my five most recent Flickr photos. I was hesitant to add yet another.

So what are my issues with JavaScript badges? I'll let Jeremy answer that one, but in a nutshell:

The "slower page loading time" is due to the JavaScript badge making an external server call, each time the page is loaded. What happens when the external server is down? My site fails to load. This "reliance" on a third-party application is unsettling at best.

The biggest complaint is that search engines can't "see" JavaScript badge text, so therefore it's like the content doesn't even exist on my site.

This complaint can be argued back and forth endlessly, because some people believe that web sites should be made for visitors, not search engines. Google even says so:

Make pages for users, not for search engines.

I agree with this sentiment, so that's why I decided to just ignore my "gut instinct" for now.

Categories: JavaScript , Twitter

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matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from a suburb of Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.

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