In case you
haven’t noticed, there have been a lot of new software start-ups
and initiatives by major software vendors around the concept of
widgets and gadgets. A widget is a small GUI application (both
visually and computationally) that provides information on, or
an interface to, a very restricted set of functionality or data.
In many ways a
widget is analogous to a gage on the dashboard of your car. Just
as automobile gages provides information about a single aspect
of your automobile (tachometer, speedometer, oil level, gas
level), software widgets provide information on a single aspect
your personal, public, or enterprise data.
Desktop Widgets
Engines
• Apple Desktop Widgets
• Yahoo! Widget Engine
• Microsoft Gadgets
• Google Desktop
• KlipFolio Klips
• Opera Widgets
• SpringWidgets
Web Widgets
• Google AdSense
• Flickr
• YouTube
• SnapShots
• LineBuzz
• ClustrMaps
• Microsoft Gadgets
Mobile Widgets
• Openwave Mobile Widgets
• Opera Platform
• S60 Web Run-Time |
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Gadgets
Google Gadgets are a recent addition
to the Google Desktop Search package. Google Desktop Search is a
local, desktop-based search technology made available to the public
by Google in late 2004. This software basically indexes a user’s
local files and dcuments for keywords, which would then appear on
relevant searches when one does a local query.
Google Desktop featured a new
addition in version 2, the gadgets-precursor, Sidebar panels, which
had the ability to display and aggregate bits of information from
other sites. Version 3 improved on the search aspect of Desktop,
as the search could span several computers owned by a Google
account.
Need I mention that Google Desktop
Search was also subject to controversy because of privacy issues?
Google Gadgets, as it is now known,
debuted with the release of Google Desktop 4 just this month.
Functionality-wise Gadgets is similar to its previous
Sidebar plugins incarnation, doing anything that the old Sidebar
plugins did. Hey, it looks very much like the Sidebar we know all
too well. Ah, the power of re-branding
Widgets
In 2003 Konfabulator, a startup,
released a paid software that consisted of cool standalone applets
that did all sorts of stuff from telling the time, to monitoring
stock market prices, to displaying your iCal calendar. This was
originally for the Mac OS, and then a Windows port was released late
2004. Apparently, Apple also had plans for a widget system built-in
to its then-upcoming Tiger variant of OS X, which was called
Dashboard. Tiger was released early 2005, along with Dashboard, amid
controversy that Dashboard was a rip-off of Konfabulator.
Mid-2005, Yahoo! acquired the
startup, and then offered Konfabulator as freeware, both for Mac OS
X and Windows. Everyone’s happy. The Konfabulator people get their
millions (okay, speculating here), Apple users get a choice between
Dashboard and Konfabulator, Windows users get to utter theirs oohs
and ahhs over the OS X-like tools they can leave cluttered around
their desktops, and for everyone else, finally, cross-platform apps
that actually work!
Yahoo! later had the great idea of
renaming Konfabultaor to (surprise!) the Yahoo! Widget Engine.
Widgets are gadgets you can easily
add to your
1) browser , through toolbars 2) you
blog 3) your website or any personal page
these gadgets are application specific and are available for various
needs and tastes. widgets are cool tools that provide you solution
to a specific need of yours for example:
1) An IP address widget lets you see your IP address whenever u wish
to see it. It can be installed at your toolbar and it it is very
useful for people who are using proxies or need to change their IP
addresses for adsense purposes.
2) A flickr widget lets you see the daily Flickr collection of
awesome images in a convenient slide show gadget
3) You can have games installed on your toolbar. Or download a
toolbar that has games links embeded
link--->
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Dashboard-Widgets/Games-Widgets/
(for mac users)
link--->
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/games/
(apple downloads)
link--->
http://www.yourminis.com/minis/yourminis/yourminis/mini:games
(windows)
4)
POP3 access provided free of charge on three major E-mail
providers viz;
Yahoo
Gmail
Hotmail
link--->
http://decipherlife.forumtoolbar.com/
5) There's a cool feature for website and blogs, a widget popularly
called moodget. It is a cool tool that displays your mood to your
friends. when embedded on a personal blog or a page it shows your
visitors, the mood you have set for yourself. cool for you and your
frnz
link---->
http://www.labpixies.com/moodget/
link---->
http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=4c8df8ea-3b5e-41a9-b902-27087ee9c47d
5) Features, Weather , Games, Videos, Wallpapers and much much
more..
this toolbar is worth mentioning . it provides the email notifier
with POP3 access. plus it is easily configurable with the widgets,
most widget sites have a 'conduit' button that automatically
installs the widget to your toolbar. Has radio for your browser too.
see it and u'll get it.
link--->
http://decipherlife.forumtoolbar.com
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