Lately when I visit a WordPress site, I’m being greeted by a small annoyance.
It’s called a Wibiya toolbar and it sits at the bottom of your browser bar on sites where it has been installed.
On the toolbar are links to recent posts, random posts, Twitter, your Facebook community, if you have one, and other dubiously-useful links.
In general, I don’t like things popping up on my screen suddenly when I visit a website and I have to say I find the Wibiya toolbar more annoying than helpful.
If you want to present a professional website, I suggest you don’t consider installing this toolbar. The functionality and links that it adds can be better incorporated into your WordPress site in more attractive and useful ways. For instance, if you want to direct visitors to your RSS feed, the universally recognizable square RSS icon can be inserted into your header or sidebar or dozens of other areas. If you want to invite visitors to join your group on Facebook, an attractive Facebook icon and short invitation text will get their attention without the risk of annoying them.
It’s easy to get carried away adding features and “doo dads” to your site, especially a WordPress site. After all, there are nearly 7,000 WordPress plugins available now to add all sorts of features to your site.
Before you implement any add on or feature on your site, make sure you are clear that it adds value and is useful to your visitors.
I have similar feelings about this Wibiya bar. It does seem to add some decent tools but I’m always wary of, as you put it, doo dads. I’m still conflicted about the “share on Facebook” and “tweet this” buttons I have added to a site I administer.
One interesting feature is that the Wibiya bar allows you to see some stats on how many people shared your articles using various means. And despite its “random article” function, which doesn’t strike me as a particularly useful feature, it is a well thought out nav bar. I’m not a huge fan of the flashiness of it though. If you can edit the CSS to make it a tiny, unobstructive bar at the bottom of your site without distracting readers, it might be worth it.
Hi Ishmael! Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
I hear you when it comes to the Facebook sharing and tweeting buttons as well. I’m very conflicted as well.
nothing conflicting about it : it’s annoying as hell!
If I ever go to a website that has any kind of tool bar integrated that is not acutally part of the site, I just leave. I don’t need the bother. If it is not a navigation bar for the website it self it is just in the way.