All these Widgets, Idjits, Digits and Midgets are making me fidget.

by Jessica Horton

Free Market Cowgirl

Author website

Every web 2.0 Realtor® that is any web 2.0 Realtor® has at least one or more widgets up and running on their preferred social networking sites. Some Realtors® collect widgets like my son collects insects—strange little trapped creatures placed proudly on display—creatures that I don’t want coming anywhere near me! And, just like my eight-year-old and his obsessions with all things creepy-crawly—I’m not sure if Realtors® really want these things, or if it’s just the thrill of hunting them down, jumping online, sniffing them out, inserting those few lines of pre-written HTML code into their blog like bugs going into my boy’s empty-and-cut-open Mayfield Dairy milk jug. Then, slowly but ever so proudly lifting them up, so the whole world can see their widgets, more widgets, and look, a whole colony of social-networking, virtual-reality widgets.

Or, as I like to call them: Idjits, Digits and Midgets.

The Idjits – These things give me the creeps. Every time I see one, I think of the little girl from Poltergeist talking about somebody trapped inside her television. The only difference is that these are little faces trapped inside my computer—probably wanting to get out, but can’t. Prisoners in their own private sidebar hell wishing they had spent their time more productively than typing meaningless replies to words they never even read. Now, some agents swear by this widget and even use it as a makeshift stalker tracker. Obviously they don’t know what having a real-life stalker is like. If they did, they would know that the ones you can’t see are the ones you need to worry about. I’m not concerned about the agents staring at me on my computer, I already know what they are doing…or not doing.

The Digits – These contraptions tell people how good you are at selling real estate, how many posts you’ve written, how many points you’ve earned and how often you appear on the front page of such and such social media site. Funny thing is, not once have I ever been asked by a home buyer or seller how many posts I’ve written, how many comments I’ve made, or how many gold stars I’ve collected. No, they seem to be more curious about how many homes I’ve sold, what my days on the market are, what my list-price-to-sales-price ratio is, and how many digits after the decimal point are they going to have to pay me to sell their home. Yes, there certainly are a few Realtors on certain social networks that I would love to give a certain virtual digit to when they come nosing around my blog, but I think I will pass and hope to run into them in real life.

And, last but certainly not least, well maybe…

We have the Midgets – I’m probably going to get in trouble for this one, but I’m going with Webster’s definition #1 for my intended use. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, we were talking about the midget widget before I went all Collin Raye on you. Midget widgets—Aren’t they just so darn cute? Awwwwww! They’re just precious. Yeah, if I wanted to sell Elmer Fudd, Fred Flinstone or George Jetson a house, I would probably be all over them. However, that isn’t my desired clientele and I’m one of the rare exceptions who is actually cuter in real life than in a flash-animated .swf file. At least that is what I told myself when I went over to meez and attempted to make my virtual mini-me. I tried. I really did, but I just couldn’t do it.

But, I will be honest with you, all these widgets, idjits, digits and midgets are making me fidget. Everybody that is anybody has one on their page. I want to fit in. I want to be one of the cool kids. I want a widget. I want to paste some HTML code in my blog too.

So, I went over to AR and pasted this code into my blog’s description:

<iframe id=”griffinhomes” name=”griffinhomes” style=”position:absolute; width:100%; height:5000px; top:0px; left:0px; z-index:10000″ frameborder=”yes” scrolling=”no” src=”http://www.jessicahorton.com”>&nbsp;</iframe>

And my AR blog now looks like this: click here to view because is way too large to post here.

Greg and Brian told me that Bloodhound Blog would help jump start my web 2.0 career. Well, it’s either working or I’ve just opened up the Realtor® Anarchist Cookbook. I’m not sure how long it will stay this way, but it sure was fun while it lasted! 🙂

Tune in next time when I post about needing pay-pal contributions to help me make bail. And, as Eric just pointed out, another widget…sigh.