Blogs usually have half a dozen or so widgets in the sidebar - any more and you're testing the patience of your visitors with slow-loading pages. This homepage-blog currently has 30 widgets, perhaps as much as a personalized start page like iGoogle or Netvibes, which are made of widgets and nothing but. This is possible due to a "keyword" feature in Tistory blogs which uses JavaScript pop-ups. Because not many Korean blog systems allow code manipulation, this kind of hack would be impossible with competing blogs such as Naver blogs. (BTW: Happy Birthday to Tistory, which turned 1-year old last week.)

Here's a brief instruction on how to make a Tistory keyword-widget:

1. Find an interesting widget (see below). Customize the size and look, choose any other available options, then copy the code (usually <script> or <iframe>).
2. In Tistory, create a post as a "keyword" and not as a regular post. (You might have to enable this feature by activating the keyword plugin.) Give the keyword-post a distinctive title like "@ Joke of the Day." Paste the widget code in the html editor and publish the keyword-post.
3. In the Tistory control panel under skin -> sidebar, add a "code banner" module (again, the code banner plugin needs to be activated first). Click the module's "edit" button and enter the link-code of the keyword-post that contains your widget. The code looks like this:
4. <a onclick="openKeyword('/keylog/@%20Joke%20of%20the%20Day')" class="key1">@ Joke of the Day</a>
5. A keyword-link should now appear in the sidebar underlined with red dots. Click on it and your new keyword-widget should appear in a pop-up window.

Most sidebars to blogs are narrow. The advantage of using Tistory "keywords" as widget-containers is that you have much more real estate. Also, because it uses a separate pop-up window, it's ideal for web radios or jukeboxs - you or your visitors can navigate your blog pages freely without having the currently playing song end abruptly every time you navigate to a different page.

There are many sites that offer free web widgets. Here's a list of the major ones:

• Google Web Gadgets
• WidgetBox
• YourMinis  
• Sniperoo
• SpringWidgets

For descriptions of some of the keyword-widgets in the sidebar, see The Year of the Widget and 위젯.