Turn your Blog into a Google Gadget

This tutorial will teach you how to turn your blogs rss feed into a Dapp, which then can be used to create a Google Gadget, Netvibes Module, PageFlake, or a Facebook application. But for this tutorial we are going to create a Google gadget.

First, you will need to go to Dapper and create a new account. Once your account is created navigate to the Dapper home page and click on the option to create a new Dapp.

Now choose the option in the tab menu to use content from an existing feed, enter the url of your feeds location, and as your format select Dapp XML. If you are using a feed redirection plugin turn it off. Note:  This will only work if the feeds url is part of your blog.

At this point you should be on Step Two, Preview and Name. This step is pretty self explanatory, I unchecked the publication date. Make sure everything looks good, then click next step to be taken to Step Three.

Step Three, saving your Dapp. Go over and make sure your Dapp Name, Description, and Tags are filled in ( when filling in your tags try to use LSI keywords). You will notice an input when saving your Dapp.

This is the reason the feed you use must be a part of your blog and not located somewhere else, aka feedburner. All your love will go to the domain hosting your feed.

Now to complete Step Three and Save your Dapp. You will then be taken to your Dapps page. Bookmark this page.

Use your newly created Dapp.

You will notice in the drop down menu that there are quite a few options, but for this demo we are going to create a Google Gadget. Select Google Gadget from the drop down menu and hit Go .

Fill in your gadgets name and description.  In the "Fields to Display" uncheck two fields "Item link" and "Show labels", play around with the advanced options and see what you like, click the Update Input button.

Scroll down and display the option "Get a nice short URL" in the field "What do you want your service to be called?" and give your gadget a nice name and save the service.

We are just about done. Time to submit the gadget to Google. Make sure you are signed in to your Google account.

Scroll back up and find the submit to google section.

First add the gadget to your iGoogle page. Then click on the publish in the iGoogle directory (a new window will open up), and accept the terms. You should now be viewing your congratulations notice.

Thats it your done, you have turned your blog into a Google gadget.