LinkWithin widget

With all this widget activity in the blogfest I have stumbled across this widget called LinkWithin on a few blogs that I am following and I though I'd give it a go.

The LinkWithin widget appears under each post and links to any related blog posts in your blog archive. It appears with a heading of "you may also like these stories" and then 3 or more (you decide) thumbnail pictures from that post. The thumbnail image is another reason to include some visual stimulation in each post. As you can see my diigo resources come through automatically "imageless" so they are blank when they display. Does anyone know of a way to include an image with the post from diigo?

I am not sure what metadata the widget draws on to make the relation between posts or whether it is just random. According to a review on Read Write Web, LinkWithin pulls on not only your tabs, but the posts "relevancy, popularity and recency". I have to admit I'm not the best at tagging my posts, so maybe now is a good time to start!

So why would you use LinkWithin? I like the fact that your older blog posts can be showcased for readers of your blog, instead of just tucked away in those side archive folders. I also feel it may just encourage readers of your blog to linger a little longer and to engae in conversation through older posts, not just the new ones. The other good thing about this widget is that it is available for Wordpress, Typepad, and Blogger platforms so I think you'll start to see it popping up everywhere.

What other widgets have you discovered in the new year and how do you think they will improve engagement with your blog?