Recently I learnt about a technology called 'widgets', actually a framework or skeleton system which allows easy creation of small, neat, clean, and handy gadget like software.
My excitement to using widgets increased after seeing a wonderful Desktop Weather widget.. which comes part of installation of something called Yahoo! Widget engine.. And as we all know, if Google or Yahoo! aquire something, they break the technology in there.. to easier pieces that a layman can not just use but also develop on it. Same things to say with Yahoo! Widgets.
You don't have to be programmer to download and use widgets.. its just like any other downloadable software.... actually much easier than that.
It seems that the idea of widgets has been there for some years now (firstly thought of in 2000 by one person 'Arlo Rose').. and later became known as 'Konfabulator', which was later aquired by Yahoo! to be renamed and branded "Widgets"... just like Gadgets in electronics.
The digital clock Image in this post is a worldTime widget that I created. Download it here. To be very specific, worldTime is a Yahoo-Widget since it requires Yahoo-widget-engine to run, .. Apple's version of widgets (& probably Microsoft's version also) are different in widget implementation.
Learn more about Yahoo-widgets here.. widgets.yahoo.com
Learn more about Apple-dashboard widgets here..http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/
Vista Gadgets
As usual, good guys at Microsoft have got excited about the possibilities of widgets which first came out with Apple's Mac OS Tiger last year, ... and Vista has it and calls it 'Vista Gadgets'
