Do widgets check your rating at the time they are loaded on a page or does it work differently?

depends on which widget. the BLOGGER one is automatic. the other one you have to manually update.

Aha!  Thanks, Erik.

Oooh, you get an added bonus with the badge: your rating is anything you choose.  I think I'll choose 2763.

What's a chesscom. widget? (sounds like some fancy contraption used on target bows these days)

They're relatively small links you can put on your other web pages should you choose to do so.  Some of them contain your rating and member name along with the basic chess.com (dare I say advertisement)image.  They're for us internet geeks with multiple websites who aren't afraid to proudly display the depth of our geekiness while promoting this fine site.

Those compound bows do keep getting fancier.

Wow, that is geeky:) Gunniess put a widget in there can, actually it might have been John Smith Smooth.

I know this thread is kind of OLD but I can't seem to add the blogger widget. I clicked on "add to BLOGGER" but it brings me to the same page!):