Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

WebSiteButtons posts

Filed under: Audio, Business, Design, Video, Podcasting, Social Software

What's Free to Go Web 2.0?

Widgets are Web 2.0A couple of years ago, I wasn't completely sure what Web 2.0 was and sought an education. Robert Scoble, here to keynote for ConvergeSouth, sat at my kitchen table and answered the elusive question in a single word. "What's Web 2.0? Widgets." Suddenly, it made sense. Web 2.0 is the interactive Web (so sayeth Dave Winer and he should know) and widgets – a play on our old Econ 101 class' finest example – are the glue that holds Web 2.0 together.

In the Web 2.0 world, it's a lot less about design and a lot more about place and experience. You want your content and not just your Web site to be identified with your brand. Find a designer who thinks like a programmer and your site can reflect the changes of Web 2.0. If your designer talks about a "Flash intro," think about hiring a new one. And find out what's free online.

Are Web 2.0 logos free?
Web 2.0 logos can be free if you're willing to build your own from a step-by-step tutorial. If you've been thinking of redesigning your Web site, now is a good time to go 2.0 ("two-oh"). Learn how to make a 2.0-ish logo (Photoshop tutorial). Take a look at the free 2.0-style buttons for your site here. There are even blank buttons you can use on your new site here (or get a graphics designer to build custom).

Besides, it's time for your site to transition to XML and use an RSS feed for updates and news. You might as well start out with new 2.0-ish site buttons.

What's free to make 2.0 buttons and icons?
If you don't have $1,200 to spend on the newest incarnation of Photoshop, get Gimp. It's free, very Photoshop-like and runs on Windows. If you're not a do-it-yourself'er, you can get previews of free Web icons and buttons suitable for the Web 2.0 theme here.

Visit free online button-generating sites and create some 2.0-ish graphics for your site that use your colors. There are button makers and more button makers and even more button makers that are free.

Read more →

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Livescribe Store
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio