Recent Comments Widget for Blogger

Earlier, I have written a post on how to install the Recent Posts widget for Blogger. In this post, you will see how to install the recent comments widget for Blogger. I have to accept that I am not a great fan of the recent comments widget. While I certainly favoured the installation of the recent posts widget to enhance the blog's navigation, I leave it to you to decide whether you need a widget for recent comments. I personally feel that it is not very useful unless you have lots of visitors who contribute regularly.

Blogger do not have a standard widget for you to include easily into your blog. But, don’t worry. There is a small work-around that would help you to install the recent comments widget on to your blog. The trick is to use the “Feed” page element provided by Blogger. You just have to get a feed from your own blog. Just follow the step-by-step tutorial below that should make things clear.

1. Log in to your Blogger account


2. On the dashboard, click on the “Settings” link




3. On the Settings tab, click on the “Site Feed” tab




4. Check the field “Allow Blog Feed”. Please select either “Full” or “Short” in the drop-down menu. You have to ensure that “None” is not selected


5. Click “Save Settings” button at the bottom of the page




6. Now, click on the “Template” tab. This will take you to the “Page Elements” tab




7. Click on the “Add a Page Element” link at the section where you want to include the list of recent comments. You can include it in the sidebar or just below the post




8. In the Page Elements pop-up window, scroll down to find the page element “Feed”




9. Click the “Add to Blog” button


10. Type the comments feed URL of your own blog, which should look like http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/. Replace the text "yourblogname" accordingly for your blog.




11. Click on “Continue”


12. In the window that pops up, you can configure your feed. Type in a suitable title for your page element, like Recent Comments or Latest Comments


13. Select the number of comments to be displayed. Blogger allows only a maximum of 5 items to be displayed


14. You can choose to display the date of the comment and the author name if you want. You will see a preview of your feed in the box


15. Click on “Save Changes”

That's it. You have added the list of recent comments.