APAD: Sphere It Plugin
Mark Ghosh 
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Name:
Sphere It Plugin
Plugin Page:
http://sphere.wordpress.com/2007/03/31/sphere-it-plug-in-for-wordpressorg-bloggers/
Description:
Add an AJAXified link for contextual related posts to your Wordpress blog from Sphere
Features:
Simple install, easy integration, huge user base, growing list of partners
Future Plans: …
Review:
Sphere It is very simple to install and a breeze to use. Just drop into your plugins directory and activate through your control panel. This plugin is reminiscent of social networking plugins such as Alex’s Share This and of dynamic related items such as Waypath.
I like the plugin. Many of the big boys are using it and Sphere is less gimmicky and more useful. A click on the Sphere icon opens up a new AJAX window with a few related posts from other bloggers talking about the linked topic and a set of related articles from the blogosphere and news sites. Of course, TechCrunch has their own modified version of the plugin but the net effect is still the same. I really like the fact that the plugin does not weigh down the main page with dynamically downloaded content until the supplemental content is requested by a user.
This particular version of the plugin does not come with an interface and modification of the default install would require modification of the core plugin file. There is a detailed readme file (a little too detailed in my opinion, but that seems to be the new way to do things). Once the plugin is uploaded and installed, the default behavior is to insert the Sphere link at the bottom of posts that are larger than 30 words long.
As a means of testing the plugin and the features offered by Sphere, the plugin has been enabled on WeblogToolsCollection.com as a test.
(6 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Thanks for the entry. Some time ago I was looking for this plugin but couldn’t find it back then. Now I’ve got it and it seems to be working great.
Thanks for this - I was looking for something like this for some of our blogs.
Thanks for helping us get the word out and for the very kind words, much appreciated.
Tony
Hi Mark - I also wanted to mention that if your readers send us their url once they get the sphere it plug-in up and running, it would be great if they let us know. That way we can add them to our partner site list (to be release fairly soon) and also we like to point readers to new partner sites from our blog and home-page.
Thx again. Best
[...] Gosh wrote a nice, very thorough piece on our recently released WordPress Sphere It Related Content Plug-in. Thx [...]
This plugin will go down as a one of the “greats”, especially for news sites. Thanks for the post, i was unaware of it. It’s a must have. I have it working on my site.
Joseph Pisano -MUSicTECHnology.net
http://www.msutech.net
[...] [Entrada traducida. Original] [...]
I’ve installed the plug in and am trying it out on our Pages.
Very nice, will be using it!
This is such a neat plugin.Thank you!
Have you seen any kind of increase in pageviews with the installation of Sphere out here?
Hi Ajay - I’ll send you an email to discuss. We drive more page-views through 1) enhanced user experience; 2) pointing to partner content when an appropriate fit from other Sphere It widgets; and 3) we’ll soon add a Directory from Sphere.com for partner sites (this will be released this quarter). Hope that helps.
While the plugin seems is great (I was looking for something like this a long time), the Sphere-search-engine seems to work poorly with german-language-blogs
The displayed posts are hardly of the same or a related topic…
Hi Jan - I don’t think we’ve turned the filters on for German language so it won’t be a very good experience. We should have made that clear in the instructions. Our bad.
I guess my blog’s a bit too specialized. I used it on pages only and then ultimately deactivated it. Didn’t need the lag in loading for what was coming in via search.
[...] פוסט ×–×” שייך לסדרת תוסף ×œ×™×•× ×©×œ Weblog Tool Collection ×× ×™ רק מתרגמת. [...]
[...] 在æ¯ç¯‡æ–‡ç« çš„åŽé¢ï¼Œå¢žåŠ 个链接，点击这个链接能够å¯åŠ¨ä¸€ä¸ªå«æœ‰å’Œä½ å†…å®¹ç›¸ç±»ä¼¼çš„æ–‡ç« åˆ—è¡¨çš„çª—å£ã€‚这就是这个æ’件所åšçš„。Weblog Tools Collection çš„ APAD: Sphere It Plugin [...]
[...] it’s the information hound in me, but I do love this plugin. And it’s available now for Wordpress. For me it was a quick install. And it gives blog publishers another way to make their blogs sticky [...]
[...] WebLog Tools Collection has a mini review about Sphere it: I like the plugin. Many of the big boys are using it and Sphere is less gimmicky and more useful. A click on the Sphere icon opens up a new AJAX window with a few related posts from other bloggers talking about the linked topic and a set of related articles from the blogosphere and news sites. Of course, TechCrunch has their own modified version of the plugin but the net effect is still the same. I really like the fact that the plugin does not weigh down the main page with dynamically downloaded content until the supplemental content is requested by a user. [...]