The fact that Netvibes will be release the “conversion engine” as OSS still misses my point.

The Universal Widget API concerns the exporting of widgets from Netvibes to other platforms. It allows for different format to be compatible. However, Netvibes still does not allow folks to import widgets created elsewhere, regardless of format, to be imported into Netvibes.

Instead, as I understand it (and if I’m wrong please Karim correct me), Netvibes has done partnerships with various widget providers (web services) that enables its users to actually create widgets for those web services inside of Netvibes. The resulting widget for a service like del.icio.us which is created insdie of Netvibes is different than the same widget created at del.icio.us by the same user.

Why not simply allow Netvibe users to go to the widget “source” and then copy/paste the embed code into a module inside their account?

The fact that Netvibes is paving the way for a universally accepted standard is great. Kudos to Tariq. However, the irony is that while this new “coriander” conversion engine will indeed enable “….. a world where a widget works on every platform, no matter where it was originally created” Netvibes still won’t allow its users to include widgets created elsewhere in their accounts.

Tariq, what are your thoughts on this topic? Am I correct? If so, would you be willing to open up Netvibes so that users like me can finally have a place to put our widget collections?

The key words in this quote are “any widgets created for Netvibes…” These “captive” widgets created for Netvibes are, I believe, different from widgets we find “in the wild” (i.e. embed code generated by widget sponsors such as del.icio.us, Flickr, Word of Blog.net, etc).

What I would like to see is for Netvibes to allow its users the ability to copy/paste widgets (the native embed code) onto their own pages. Basically, offer us a blank html module into which we can paste the embed code and then perhaps give us some customization options.

Were this feature to be adopted the problem of finding a place to host one’s widgets would be solved (Fred Wilson’s point a while back). As Fred pointed-out, one’s sidebar in a blog is not the ideal place to store one’s widgets. Therefore, we all need a 3rd party platform to act as the host.

Were these native widgets THEN made exportable through a universal API I believe we would begin to see widgets be more than nice utilities and toys.

The novice surfers i see use yahoo.com or msn.com as their homepage and slightly expirenced surfers set google or something simple like officialhomepage.org or about:blank as their homepage.

Matty

Tariq Krim vient d’annoncer la prochaine release de Netvibes, Coriander. Coriander promet la compatibilité inter plateformes des widgets, soit : Un Widget créé pour Netvibes sera compatible sur les plateformes Yahoo Widgets, Google Desktop,…

when can I get my hands on Coriander?

@whoopee - that was exactly my original experience. But it seems to be much, much quicker now than it was just a few months ago.

What I want is a slick, fast way to get information, without losing a bunch of screen real-estate to pretty graphics. The widgets look good, but they just waste too much space IMO.