Google Gadgets
May 10th, 2006This could spell disaster for Yahoo! Widgets. In an attempt to differentiate itself from Google, Yahoo! bought Konfabulator in an attempt to work its way into the realm of desktop-based (read browser-devoid) content distribution and of course, searches. However, Google’s come out to play on that front as well. Say hello to Google Gadgets. Technically, this is a marriage of the existing Google Desktop Search and the new Personalized Google Homepage concept (which already has a variety of plugins contributed by individual developers). However, the eye-candy factor with Google Gadgets helps tip the scales in its favor, over Yahoo! Widgets. In fact, this Wired.com article even talks about an online notebook that is being launched by Google sometime next week - a tool that resides on your desktop, and allows you to save or annotate personalized searches, for sharing with family and friends. Its just a matter of time before these new tools integrate homogenously with other Google services, like the community-centric Google Co-op for example, and there’s going to be a really large repository of gadgets to make computing just a little bit simpler.
