A web Widget is a small, stand alone application which sits on your desktop. Widgets generally display information from a remote source or a web-based function such as search.
There are a number of platforms on which you can develop widgets. Probably the most well known and popular platform is The Yahoo Widget Engine.
The Yahoo Widget Engine (formerly known as Konfabulator) is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to.
Widgets run the gamut from useful system monitors and RSS readers to movie-premiere countdowns and much, much more.
With literally thousands of widgets available, there's something for everyone. And since they're all made for Yahoo Widget Engine, you can customize your desktop without having to worry that one program will cancel out the other.
The Yahoo Widget Engine provides a default set of widgets that perform a variety of functions. Some of these include:
A weather Widget, which downloads weather forecast information from a selected city and displays the information as photo-realistic weather icons against a translucent glass background (to blend in with Mac OS X's Aqua GUI), along with other information, such as the temperature. The user can also expand the Widget to get weather forecast information for the selected city for up to five days in advance. Weather information is now provided by Yahoo! although previous versions (branded as Konfabulator) used Weather.com and AccuWeather.com.
A digital clock Widget, which shows the current time in digital format. The colour of the Widget can be changed to suit the user's preferences. There is also an additional alarm clock function, which can act either as an alarm at a specified time (which can be set to sound daily), or as a countdown ticker. More than one alarm can be set with the digital clock.
A stock ticker Widget, which polls information for selected stock market indices and other traded funds from stock markets around the world (particularly in the United States and Canada), and displays them as a list on the Widget. The user can choose to display which stock indices and traded funds are monitored. Items on the list can be rearranged simply by dragging it to the desired position.
A Personal information manager (PIM) overview Widget, which polls scheduled appointments and task lists from Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Sunbird on Windows, and the iCal application on Mac OS X. The appointments or tasks the user had scheduled for today in the polled application is then displayed in the Widget.
What sets Yahoo! Widget Engine apart from other scripting applications is that it takes full advantage of today's advanced graphics. This allows Widgets to blend fluidly into your desktop without the constraints of traditional window borders. Toss in some sliding and fading, and these little guys are right at home in Windows and Mac OS X.
The format for these Widgets is completely open and easy to learn so creating your own Widgets is an extremely easy task.
Yahoo Widget Engine runs on both Macintosh and Windows computers.
Yahoo Widget Engine for Windows requires either Windows Vista, Windows XP SP1, or Windows 2000 SP3 minimum. It is recommended that you have the latest service packs and updates.
Yahoo Widget Engine for Macintosh is for any Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.3 or greater.
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