Here's a quick 3 step rundown of how to make a widget packed with New York Times goodness. It's not exactly rocket science, anyone with a basic understanding of RSS could have managed something similar previously, but it is a short and sweet process to getting a custom view of New York Times content for your site or start page. Watch out for Page Not Found errors, the platform is still in beta, and was a little buggy for this widget-making master, but take a deep breath, hit refresh, and that should solve the problem.
1. Create an Account
It's slightly more painful than the standard web 2.0 registration process of just username/password creation, but if you're willing to supply your job title, industry, household income, zip code, and birth year, then you're good to go.
2. Customize Your Content
Navigate to the Times Widgets page and click on the big orange get started button.
Use the selection tool to create a widget with up to three separate feeds. You can search for a specific type of feed, or select from the categories in the drop down menu. You'll also want to specify how many headlines to show at one time (up to 10), and whether or not you want to include summaries and thumbnails.
As you're creating the custom content-filled box, you'll get an actual side-by-side preview of your widget work of art.
3. Take it With You
Clicking on Get Widget will open up a new window with your personalized embed code, as well as buttons for a one click addition to iGoogle, Netvibes, Blogger, or Vox.
4. Think Outside the Box
