UserVoice

UserVoice is advertising having 70 thousand organizations signed up in over 42 countries. Among its vanity customers there are Seesmic and Posterous. Uservoice offers a limited free account that’s just capable of collecting user feedback.

GetStatisfaction

GetStatisfaction is proud to have served sites like Box.net, amazon.com, kiddicare.com, pampers.com or foursquare.com. Among fortune 500 customers they cite Microsoft and P&G. They offer a free 15 days trial, with no free account.

Zendesk

Zendesk is a help desk software that provides an embedded badge for collecting customer feedback. Vanity customers include: Groupon, Sears, Sony Music, Box, Xerox, OpenTable, Adobe, MSNBC. Zendesk offers trial periods without but no free account.

Pinterest is new social network that seems to be a mix between Tumblr and Instapaper.

Embedding & Configuration

The code below embeds this pinned image at the end of this post.

<div style='padding-bottom: 2px; line-height: 0px'><a href='http://pinterest.com/pin/343601793/' target='_blank'><img src='http://d30opm7hsgivgh.cloudfront.net/upload/343601793_xx3NlcBb_c.jpg' border='0' width='375' height ='375'/></a></div><div style='float: left; padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px;'><p style='font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;'>Source: <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://www.sawdustcityllc.com/sign_danger_mouth_operates_faster_than_brain.html'>sawdustcityllc.com</a> via <a style='text-decoration: underline; font-size: 10px; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com/irockitlidat/' target='_blank'>Barbara</a> on <a style='text-decoration: underline; color: #76838b;' href='http://pinterest.com' target='_blank'>Pinterest</a></p></div>

Visual.ly is an innovative service that helps you create beautiful info graphics and post them Visual.ly.

Embedding & Configuration

You can simply embed the image in an IMG HTML tag or use a JavaScript code:

<div class='visually_embed' /><img class='visually_embed_infographic' src='http://visually.visually.netdna-cdn.com/SteveJobsTimeline_4e8ed8ab48300_w587.jpg' rel='http://visually.visually.netdna-cdn.com/SteveJobsTimeline_4e8ed8ab48300.jpg' /><div class='visually_embed_bar' ><span> via </span><a target='_blank' class='logo' href='http://visual.ly'><img border='0' alt='visually' src='http://visual.ly/embeder/logo.png'></a></div><a id='visually_embed_view_more' target='_blank' href='http://visual.ly/steve-jobs-timeline'></a><link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href='http://visual.ly/embeder/style.css' />
	<script type='text/javascript' src='http://visual.ly/embeder/embed.js' > </script></div>

PunchTab allows you to create loyalty programs for your website.

Login & Sign Up

You need to register to create loyalty programs. The registration is a one step process that requires your email and website. You’ll get your password in an email.

You cannot sign-up with external accounts, like Facebook or Twitter.

Embedding & Configuration

You get to choose from two types of embedding: side badge (with four placement options) or sidebar widget.

Widget install for EmbeddedScript.com:

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
  var is_ssl = ("https:" == document.location.protocol);
  var asset_host = is_ssl ? "https://static.punchtab.com/" : "http://static.punchtab.com/";
  document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + asset_host + "js/pt.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
  var _ptq = _ptq || [];
  var reward_widget_options = {};
  reward_widget_options.key = "602f7b5a0788d80b90c4ad269a5a2e4c";
  reward_widget_options.display = "inline";
  var reward_widget = new PT.reward_widget(reward_widget_options);
</script>


<div id="punchtab_widget"></div>

Badge install:

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
  var is_ssl = ("https:" == document.location.protocol);
  var asset_host = is_ssl ? "https://static.punchtab.com/" : "http://static.punchtab.com/";
  document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + asset_host + "js/pt.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>

<script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
  var _ptq = _ptq || [];
  var reward_widget_options = {};
  reward_widget_options.key = "602f7b5a0788d80b90c4ad269a5a2e4c";
  reward_widget_options.display = "tab";
  reward_widget_options.position = {x:"right",y:"bottom"};
  var reward_widget = new PT.reward_widget(reward_widget_options);
</script>

What’s interesting about PuchTab is the JavaScript API that allows you to customize actions on your site.

Compatibility With Other Platforms

PunchTab can be embedded on any website with JavaScript support. However, it specifically supports Blogger, TypePad, WordPress and Joomla.

Further more, you can link your account to your Facebook page or enable Foursquare.

List.ly is social list creator that allows you to embed lists on your website.

Login & Sign Up

In order to publish lists on your site you need to get a publisher key. This seems to be a two steps process that is not instant.

Once you sign-up you receive an email like this:

Dear Mihai Roman, Thanks for your interest in Early Access to the Listly plugin. We will get back to you very shortly. Meanwhile if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at support list.ly. Regards, The Listly Team

Hopefully, I’ll get that publisher key activated soon.

To create lists, you can only login with Facebook or Twitter.

Embedding & Configuration

Once I’ll get my publisher key, I’ll update this section.

It seems to be a simple JavaScript code snippet, probably configured with your publisher key:

 <script type="text/javascript" src="http://list.ly/plugin/show?list=9E&mode=preview"/></script>

UPDATE
I got my publisher key validated and now the embedding code show up conveniently next to the list:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://list.ly/plugin/show?list=9E&key=bb89763f9aaec0690577"></script>

Compatibility With Other Platforms

List.ly should work with practically any website with JavaScript support.

Conclusion

Embedding list.ly lists on your website could be entertaining for your audience. The clean design fits well in blogs and websites of at least 500px wide. You could use the voting and counters to get information from your users.

See it in Action

You can preview a list here

Google Analytics is probably the most used site analytics platform on the web and we’re using it too. Besides the popular free version, Google also provides an optimized premium version for enterprise

Login & Sign Up

You can only login with your Google account. Signing up is as simple as logging in and accessing the analytics website.

Embedding & Configuration

Once you signed-up, you must add a new analytics account that can be bound to one domain name, multiple subdomains on the same domain name or to multiple domain names.

In the account creating process you will be provided with a JavaScript code customized with that account’s unique ID.

For example, the code for EmbeddedScript.com is the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
  var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
  document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
  </script>

  <script type="text/javascript">
  try {
  var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-26272013-1");
  pageTracker._trackPageview();
  } catch(err) {}</script>

UA-26272013-1 is the unique identifier that should reflect the analytics account you set up. You can have multiple analytics accounts for a single Google account.

You must add the JavaScript code to every page for which you want to get analytics. Usually you’ll add it to the bottom of your main templates in your dynamic website.

Compatibility With Other Platforms

Google Analytics works with practically any website with JavaScript support.

Vanity Measurements and Client List

The vanity client list include REMAX, Costco Travel, Diageo, The Huffington Post, Agency.com, Booking.com, American Cancer Society.

Issues

The analytics dashboard does not work properly on devices without Adobe Flash.

Conclusion

Overall, embedding GA on your site is trivial.

Disqus is the comment platform we’re using for this site, so it’s expected to start with a review about it.

Disqus allows website owners to embed a customizable JavaScript code that renders a comments thread and posting form.

Login & Sign Up

You can’t sign-up using an external identity provider, like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo or generic OpenID provider. However, user can comment on Disqus platform using these external accounts.

The login pop-up window allows you to login with an OpenID provider, without providing the shortcuts for popular ones (e.g. Google, Yahoo, AOL)

Registration could benefit from allowing external providers.

Embedding & Configuration

For posting, you must embed a JavaScript code snippet where you must configure 3 parameters:

• shortname: identifies your Disqus account;
• identifier: some type of identifier for the current page (e.g. blog post id, article id, etc). Usually, you will use a parameter passed to your template engine of choice (e.g. JSP, PHP, Velocity, FreeMaker, etc.);
• url: the permalink for the current page.

<div id="disqus_thread"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
    /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */
    var disqus_shortname = 'example'; // required: replace example with your forum shortname

    /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */
    (function() {
        var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text/javascript'; dsq.async = true;
        dsq.src = 'http://' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/embed.js';
        (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);
    })();
</script>
<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href="http://disqus.com/?ref_noscript">comments powered by Disqus.</a></noscript>
<a href="http://disqus.com" class="dsq-brlink">blog comments powered by <span class="logo-disqus">Disqus</span></a>

Disqus allow you to display a comment count independent of the posting code. This feature is particularly useful for blogs or content management systems.

Configuring the comment count requires adding links tags with a special attribute and modified href attribute:

<a href="http://example.com/article1.html#disqus_thread" data-disqus-identifier="article_1_identifier">First article</a>

For each page that has one or more comment counts you must embed JavaScript code:

<script type="text/javascript">
    /* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * */
    var disqus_shortname = 'example'; // required: replace example with your forum shortname

    /* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * */
    (function () {
        var s = document.createElement('script'); s.async = true;
        s.type = 'text/javascript';
        s.src = 'http://' + disqus_shortname + '.disqus.com/count.js';
        (document.getElementsByTagName('HEAD')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('BODY')[0]).appendChild(s);
    }());
</script>

Compatibility With Other Platforms

Disqus works with practically any website with JavaScript support. Particularly, it works with WordPress, tumblr, Blogger, Drupal, etc.

Vanity Measurements and Client List

The vanity client list include CNN, Time, Fox News, IGN, Engadget.

Issues

At the time I’m writing this article, Disqus doesn’t work on Safari for iPad.

Conclusion

Overall, embedding Disqus on your site is not trivial. The documentation is very clear and, considering the features that a comment platform brings to your site, Disqus makes it as easy as it can be.

See it in Action

You can see it in action at the bottom of this post.