Most of the websites include social networking widgets like Facebook “Like” or Twitter’s “tweet” buttons that ease sharing of the content.

The major drawback with the widgets is the performance loss due to the multiple requests made and files loaded.

SocialCount, a jQuery plugin, with only ~3kb in size (minified-gzipped) and provides a much lighter solution for them.

It has support for Facebook, Twitter and Google+, doesn’t auto-load the widgets and only loads them when user hovers the related widget which ends up in lots of performance and speed gain.

In total, the plugin makes 1 JS request, 1 CSS request, 1 optional request for icons and 1 optional AJAX request for counts (compared to 25 total requests for Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus widgets)

SocialCount works with mouse, touchscreen or keyboard and comes in multiple sizes.

In order to simplify sign-in/sign-up processes and reach user data instantly, authenticating + authorizing users through social networks is a highly-used.

Social Auth is an open source and free PHP library that handles this process very easily.

It has support for 3 major networks: Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

The library is not limited to registration + login but can also pull user data where supported.

Google Web Fonts is a great directory of free-to-use and open source web fonts. Not only the fonts are free but they are also served from the Google's fast servers.

And, there are many items in that directory which may make finding the one you need hard.

Best Web Fonts is a web app which aims to simplify the process of finding the right Google Web Font.

It is a curated directory which you can instantly test the fonts and get the embed codes. All in the same page.

Also, there are various CSS effects provided which can be previewed with the font of your choice too (the CSS of the effects are available for use as well).

I'm usually a fan of hosting all the files used in websites myself, under the same location with the website itself. When an image or JS file needs to be updated, no need to update it from a remote URL but just change the file hosted under the same website/FTP account.

However, this is not how things work the fastest. In order to speed up websites by distributing requests to multiple hosts and serving them from the fastest location to the end users, keeping stuff in CDNs (content delivery networks) is a very good and widely used solution.

The same logic goes for JavaScript frameworks. To speed up things, hundreds of thousands of websites use hosted JavaScript libraries. Actually, they all use a single hosted platform: Google Libraries API which is the focus of this discussion.

There is a serious speed and bandwidth gain in this structure as the JavaScript frameworks are cached in the user's computer and user won't re-download them each time when visiting a Google Libraries API-powered website.

Today, if we have used jQuery, MooTools, Dojo, Prototype, etc. while developing our websites (almost every website uses one of them -including many WordPress, Joomla, Drupal themes-), there is a high chance that we are calling these frameworks from Google Libraries API.

So, what happens if Google Libraries API gets hacked? 

To be more specific, what if the contents of https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/ver.../jquery.min.js is changed?

It gets hacked and the jQuery (or MooTools, Dojo or Prototype) JavaScript file included in our websites now contain malicious code (that includes iframes or posts forms to another URLs, etc.)?

I simply can't think of the damage it can create.

Btw, I'm aware that Google Libraries API is built with very good intentions and it does the job perfectly (thanks to them) and sure that Google's CDN is probably one of the safest places on the web. But, this security concern is worth discussing considering the effect it can create and every datacenter>server>data can possibly be hacked.

So, is this structure totally wrong or benefits are worth the thread? What do you think (really wondering here)?

Credits: Hack The Planet visual.

Socialite.js is a JavaScript library for having more control over social sharing buttons.

The library is lightweight (2kb minified-gzipped), standalone and helps the social widgets to load when you want them or only when needed/requested to speed up web pages.

It has support for the major players: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Spotify. There is no need to install the widget codes for each library as Socialite.js does that for you.

And, the library is extensible, any new social networks can be added with ease.

Bruce Galpin is sharing a framework of good-looking and Google+ styled buttons in his blog.

The buttons can use text, images or both inside them and comes with the high-quality icon set created by WebDesignShock.

As the icons have both standard and active state versions, buttons respond well to hovering them.

There is also a drop-down menu buttons version provided which is handy for presenting multiple options while still being in harmony with the rest of the buttons.

It is usually a good practice to enable users to sign-in/sign-up using popular social service accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google or OpenID.

Such an alternative not only fastens the process (no approval e-mails required, fewer form fields to fill, etc.) but also a "one less password to remember" from the user's perspective.

There are many social authentication providers besides the ones counted above including LinkedIn, Hotmail or Yahoo and integrating each can be a headache. Also, such codes may require to-be-updated from time-to-time to reflect any changes applied to them.

OneAll is a web service easing this process by providing a single API for using APIs of ~20 social services.

With the help of a "Social Login plugin", a widget that can be inserted to web pages with a copy-paste, users can be powered with an option to login with their social IDs.

A "Social Share plugin" empowers users to share their comments, purchases, reviews or other activities directly from the website with their friends on multiple social networks.

And, every action performed using OneAll (sign-in, sign-up, repeating visits, etc.) can be viewed in detail from its analytics interface.

It is hard to find such a service for free, however, OneAll is currently in beta (in-search of testers) and free during that period. Also, there will be a free plan once it is out-of-beta.

Update (18 Nov 2011) – There is now a WordPress plugin for the service which allows visitors to comment and login with social networks.

WebDesignShock has recently released a high-quality set of interface icons that follow the style of the ones used in Google+.

There are 204 items in the set, they have gray and colored versions (great for hover effect) and come in 2 sizes: 18*18px and 128*128px.

That's not all, besides .PNG, the icons are also available in .PSD format.

It has almost every item that a web application can need from actions to charts or devices. Simply, a must-bookmark.

HybridAuth is an open source PHP library for authenticating through multiple social services and ID providers.

The services supported include OpenID,Facebook, LinkedIn, Google,Twitter, Windows Live, Foursquare, Vimeo, Yahoo, PayPal and more.

It can be integrated easily into existing websites by inserting a file and few lines to the sign-in/up pages.

Once authenticated, HybridAuth provides the connected user profile's in a rich, simple and standardized structure across all the social APIs.

And, besides authentication, the library enables us to interact with the social API client that the users are connected to.

A week ago, WRD had introduced Fortune3 which is a full-featured shopping cart application and giveaway of 3*6-month licenses of any plan wanted.

If you commented to that article for joining the giveaway, make sure to check the end of this post to find out if you are one of the winners.

In case you missed:

What is Fortune3?

It is a hosted shopping cart application with 24/7 support to build an e-commerce website of any size.

The application simplifies managing the store with a "E-Commerce Wizard" desktop software which speeds up the whole process.

The design of the store of totally customizable, and it is integrated with all major "live shipping" providers (like UPS, FedEx or DHL), payment processors (including PayPal, Google Checkout, Amazon, etc.) and accounting softwares (QuickBooks, PeachTree).

Both B2C and B2B business models are supported and several marketing tools like an integrated affiliate system, price/quantity based promotions, gift certificates, promo codes + newsletter system helps selling easier.

Fortune3's Social Shopping Cart App is an instant way to add a shopping cart to Facebook pages and reach social media users.

And, mobile apps allow you to reach your store anytime, anywhere.

The winners:

Here are the 3 winners for the any plan for 6 months of this ecommerce software:

• dotcompals (comment #351445)
• Niju mohan (comment #350929)
• Nick (comment #350993)

Thanks to everyone for joining the giveaway and congratulations to the winners (hope they create awesome and sucessful e-commerce websites).