Comments on: Desktop Widgets 101

By: I don't get it....

I don't get it.... — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:40:01 +0000

Why do Mac users and some PC seem to have this “chip” on their shoulders.. It just seems so bizarre..

Who really cares what is on the computer.. Mac or PC.. as long it is functional as serves the purpose it was built for…

Yes prehaps the widget function may have come from a Mac environment… maybe not… but it’s not exactly worth throwing your toys out of your pram.. It’s a tiny bit sad to be honest… It’s just a computer…!

I do hope that life doesn’t pass you by in your dislike of all things beginning with P and ending with C.

By: Creating web search widgets for any database - 3 different options | Musings about librarianship

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:21:35 +0000

[...] : Scopus takes a different tack and offers desktop widgets via Yahoo! widgets. But here I will focus on simple web widgets – simple javascript that one can [...]

By: ja sam

ja sam — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:45:02 +0000

that’s gadgets on you picture

By: Vista Sucks

Vista Sucks — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:12:41 +0000

Microsoft totally coppied Mac with the whole widget or “gadget” thing. Pathetic, get your own ideas you damn PC users.

By: zouby

zouby — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:44:23 +0000

Interesting post indeed. We saw the rise of widgets these years. The remaining question is about how to make money?

NB: i use http://www.widgadget.com to create my widget and publish contents in blogs, social networks, etc.

By: Jeff Curie

Jeff Curie — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 20:28:07 +0000

A great business widget is one that interacts with the applications and websites a users relies on every day to do their job. A business widget can’t survive as just eye candy or an interesting toy. It needs to deliver content in the context of what a user is doing users save time and support better decisions.

A truly useful business widget is a very powerful marketing tools.

We built a desktop widget to do this for engineers designing new hardware products. You can see it at http://www.supp...rame.com/gopart

By: my girl web widget

my girl web widget — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:54:04 +0000

Right…desktop widgets are a powerful marketing tool…but what about web widgets??? i think http://www.widgipedia.com is the best!

By: chris

chris — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:57:18 +0000

Desktop widgets are a powerful marketing tool for companies because they are persistent in the desktop. It’s like a 24-hour advertising tool. If they can make it in such a way that it is not annoying enough for you to remove it, and useful enough for you to keep it in display, then they can generate a good amount of revenue.

Do check out my Vista sidebar gadget here..

http://gallery....21ec0fe&l=1

By: alex

alex — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:17:59 +0000

At http://www.yourminis.com we have web widgets that can be used as personalized start page, as individual embeddable widgets and coming soon on the appollo platform as desktop widgets….this will let us get around some of the OS issues as well as give people the ability to use widgets not only for consumption of information but for sharing as well…

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:16:24 +0000

Its only a matter of time, indeed it might have happened already. That widget will hit the net and start harvesting your personal data and sending it back to hacker hq.

By: whoopee

whoopee — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:06:38 +0000

do you need to check the weather every fifteen seconds?

do you need a calendar or calculator permanently occupying a third of your screen (and a good chunk of your RAM) ?

do you think UI consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds?

then widgets are for you

By: lemon obrien

lemon obrien — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:58:22 +0000

this is the only place widgets will work; on the desktop.

By: lemon obrien

lemon obrien — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:58:22 +0000

this is the only place widgets will work; on the desktop.

By: heri

heri — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:04:21 +0000

i dont understand why nobody talked about the upcoming apollo platform from adobe. it is cross-platform, handles flash (video, audio), is more powerful than widgets.

By: Danny (Mesa Dynamics)

Danny (Mesa Dynamics) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:36:23 +0000

Although Microsoft is moving in the right direction, I believe the distinction between web and desktop deployed widgets remains: Vista Gadgets only will run on live.com properties. The desktop certainly offers a powerful space for widget management, and there’s no reason desktop widget management has to be confined to desktop widgets. That idea is the driving factor behind the delivery of our Amnesty Generator product – our first step in unifying the web and desktop space by allowing any web widget to run inside of Dashboard. Following’s Vista’s release, we’re looking carefully at their Gadgets implementation to see how we can provide similar services for the Windows side.

By: Chris Keane

Chris Keane — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:58:31 +0000

I agree with Widgetfan – we’re increasingly seeing companies build interesting functionality via Widgets. Widgets are still in their infancy, and engineers are still figuring out how to identify and leverage their strengths. They’re still in their “whoa, cool!” phase, replete with branch ideas that will never blossom into anything valuable. But there are some concepts that seem valuable, like MyBlogLog, which is largely Widget-based. Widgets are essentially Ajax-as-a-product, and (as with Ajax) any innovator or entrepreneur should look past the forest of hype and exploratory implementations for the really good ideas.

By: Widgetfan

Widgetfan — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:34:10 +0000

Aside from Rogier’s business punt and Idealist’s synacism, there are practical business applications for widgets. The áverage’ business user could definitely benefit from widgets. What about the BlueBox Business Widget? BlueBoxWidget.com is essentially a data gateway, allowing users to store data in a centralised location, and then push it out to their target audience, be they staff; customers; suppliers; associates; public in a variety of forms. The system allows one to add unlimited ‘data items’ to their own personal back-office account. Each Data Item is specified as, for example a bar graph, dial, text, link etc. and users can then choose to input the data manually, directly on the http://www.blueboxwidget site, or have the data dynamically fed to the site via XML or ‘direct link API’ methods. The Data Items are then ‘viewed’ as Widget Windowlets on the users’ PC desktop using the BlueBox Desktop Widget or in web- or intranet-pages as page widgets. Users can also ‘export’ their Data Items as live feeds in XML or ATOM format, and these have been adapted to links into standard feed platforms such as Google, Pageflakes, AOL and the like.
Sounds both “cool” and useful to me.

By: Ori (MuseStorm)

Ori (MuseStorm) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:32:49 +0000

At MuseStorm we believe that once Vista adoption spreads, desktop widgets are going to be an important tool for content consumption (see the popularity of Mac Dashboard amongst Mac users).

Putting the hype aside for a minute, widgets are an important phenomenon for the Web and Desktop and our service is there to help publishers offer their end users widgets for both environments.

By: IdeaList

IdeaList — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:12:51 +0000

Guys,

take a step back and really ask yourself – apart from the ,,cool effect” is there any other reason why widgets would appeal to an average user?

This whole thing is so over-hyped that it’s not cool anymore…

By: Fletch

Fletch — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:46:00 +0000

Yes we (www.swamii.com) are actively building widgets.

Do people think Google’s desktop sidebar can compete when Vista’s sidebar is pre-installed on systems? Obviously Apple/Linux people won’t touch MS Live. It’s a very tough call for web companies at the moment to decide which ‘format’ they should develop for.

Perhaps eventually these companies might make their widgets compatible!?

By: Rogier Visser

Rogier Visser — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:26:24 +0000

Widgets are very cool and functional, but of course with several limitations like OS and rich media possibilities.
Swoot has solved this problem by looking to another direction. Swoot created a technology to create a browser, this browser is not an application but a web based applic.
This gives the possibility to create anything you can imagine. Every shape, content and functionality is within the range of the designer. Another advantage of this technology is a one time installer ( like flash) and easy to create/design. Everybody can build it!
This is the next step on desktop applications/desktop web content. check it out on http://www.swoot.com!

By: Razvan Antonescu

Razvan Antonescu — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:30:19 +0000

“Unbiased”? How can that post can be called unbiased when they left out the first widgets platform from Stardock?

By: Mefeedia

Mefeedia — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:21:32 +0000

Very helpful, thanks! We are about to undergo development of a number of “personal media” widgets. Yahoo’s lack of video support is glaring, at least for things such as delivering a media queue to a widget – i.e.:
http://mefeedia...er/30921/queue/

Does anyone have any ideas on which platform would work best for these purposes – i.e. delivering a series of videos? Thanks!

By: lawrence coburn

lawrence coburn — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 07:17:41 +0000

MuseStorm is a pretty neat service. It’s trying to be a one stop shop for widget distribution (web and desktop), with analytics built in. They can convert any RSS feed into a slick Flash widget.