The problem with Facebook sharing seems to be resolved.  Buttons in all websites that I’ve tested now work as expected.  My Spanish blogger friend confirms that things are fine.  And while the Facebook bug report on this issue hasn’t been marked “closed”, there are numerous comments indicating that the problem has been fixed.

In short, all is well in Facebook Land.

The issue is a little tricky because if a page has previously been shared, then there isn’t a problem.  This only occurs for a page not already in the Facebook system.

Here are the most recent developments:

• Update 3/10/2011 7:24 AM – Facebook states that they have found the problem and hope to have it fixed by tonight.
• UPDATE 1:07 PM – AddToAny sent me an email confirming that this is the issue I spotted yesterday.
• UPDATE:  Add This, another social media sharing tool, is now talking about this problem.
• I’ve been corresponding with a blogger in Spain who has confirmed the problem.
• I think that this Facebook bug report is the same issue.  Hopefully the folks at Facebook are able to fix this problem soon.

Facebook sharing with AddToAny and Share This no longer seems to be working.  The exception is for pages that have already been shared.  Here are some examples:

http://www.litquotes.com/blog/2011/03/noteworthy-link-bookstore-people/ – This link was previously shared and can still be shared on both plugins

http://www.litquotes.com/blog/2011/02/lost-season-two/ - This link was not shared and can not be shared on either plugin.  Instead an error message appears:

(No Title)

http://http%3A%2F%2Fwww.litquotes.com%2F…

(Note the malformed URL.)

I’ve been able to replicate the behavior on multiple blogs:

• http://www.washingtonwinemaker.com/blog/ – Hosted by ICDSoft
• http://www.sequim-real-estate-blog.com/sequim-realtor/seattle-re-barcamp/
• http://www.breadmachinediva.com/ – Hosted by BlueHost

I’ve also had a customer report a problem with “Facebook movie files” no longer displaying.  However these files were all working previously.

Hopefully this problem will be solved by morning.  If not, tomorrow will be an exciting day.

UPDATE:  3/9/11 – The issue is ongoing

Popularity Contest

The first plugin is Popularity Contest developed by Alex King. This plugin generates a list of your most popular posts. It looks at things like links, comments and views to determine the post that’s getting the most attention.

Providing a list of your most popular posts is a great way to give newcomers an introduction to your blog. It’s like your blog’s “Greatest Hits” section.

I like the fact that the software is constantly monitoring the activity on your site and changing the ranking based on the data. Another favorite feature is that the equation for determining popularity is adjustable. Do you think that having comments is a sure sign of popularity? Then adjust the plugin settings to give comments more weight. Eight different factors combine to create the rankings. You can adjust the weight of any and all of them.

You can see it in action on this site on the right. The section is titled “Most Popular Posts”.

Share This

The second plugin I’d like to talk about is also developed by Alex King. (What can I say? He’s one talented developer!) Share This enables people to email the link of a post to a friend as well as promoting social bookmarking.

Digg and StumbleUpon are examples of social bookmarking sites. The idea is that members share sites that they find interesting. Becoming popular on a social bookmarking site is a great way to drive traffic to your blog.

I like the fact that this one plugin does so much. It links to loads of social bookmarking sites. Even the “send to a friend” feature has extra bells and whistles. You can send the link to your Facebook or MySpace friends list.

You can see it in action toward the bottom of every post. Just click on the visible, but not gaudy, green boomerang icon to see all that the plugin has to offer.

As I said, there are over 1,500WordPress plugins listed in the official directory. If your blog needs some added functionality be sure to check them out. Someone may have developed the perfect plugin for your situation.