Some users on Pligg, the open source content management system, had requested for the SocialTwist tell a friend service being available as a module for them. And lo! we just did that for them and posted it in the Pligg Forum.

Many of you might have noticed that the Tell-a-Friend widget sometimes pops up behind flash animations. This usually occurs on Gecko (Firefox) and Webkit (Safari, Chrome) based browsers. Internet Explorer does not seem to be affected by this issue. This can easily be avoided by adding the wmode=“transparent” option to the object tag which contains the flash animation. Doing so allow the widget to pop-up on top of the flash animation. You can read more about it here and also check out a similar scenario implemented in one of our blog posts.

Since we don’t have any control over the page where the Tell-a-Friend widget is embedded we cannot enforce this option. We, however provide two options to tackle such a situation. In order to use these options you need to register and create an account for your widget. Next, after logging into your account, navigate to the Widget Design section. Here you will find two options:

• Hide Flash Objects - Selecting this option will hide any visible Flash (<embed>) objects on the page before loading the widget. This will prevent Flash and other objects from overlapping with the widget. The hidden objects are restored when the widget is closed.

• Open the widget in a popup window - Enabling this option will open the widget in a new browser window/popup, hence negating any overlapping issues completely.

Setting the wmode transparent option is probably the best option to avoid such a scenario, but in case that is not possible, the two options mentioned above can be used accordingly.

We just delivered a major upgrade! Among other things (which we shall blog about soon), you can now use Tell-a-Friend to publish to several new providers. Your users have added power to announce your content in many more networks. That should positively impact the viral possibilities of spreading your content. The new providers your users can publish to are:

Blogs/CMS: Joomla, Moveable Type, Xanga, Expression Engine

Social Networks: FriendFeed, Identi.ca

This can’t end here as there are several more networks to reach out to. We would love to hear from you which other Social Networks or Email/IM providers you consider important for us to add.

BTW, do you notice any difference in the speed of the widget?