In 2005, Yahoo purchased “Konfabulator” and renamed it Yahoo! Widgets . Yahoo’s widgets run on your desktop and can do everything from forecast the weather to validate your javascript. I tried it a few years back and it slow, but things are different now. The code-base has improved and the widgets don’t slow down your computer as much. Companies have been rumored to “steal” the idea of desktop widgets from Konfabulator. Apple was the first rumored to copy the widget idea , but now Microsoft and Google have their own “gadgets” as well.

Users can create their own widgets and share them with everyone in the widget gallery . Here is a list of some of my favorites.

• Paper – Even more simple than Notepad.


• Screen Shooter – Easily take screenshots of a portion of your desktop and save it to an image.


• iTunes Bar – Controls iTunes from a slick little bar.


• My Volume – Controls system volume and iTunes volume.


• Quick Dock – Quick launch replacement that looks like the Mac OSX dock.


• PowerXP – Easy access to lock, shutdown, restart, or bring your pc to standby mode.


• Widget Maker – Aids in building your own widget.


• JSLint – Validates your javascript code.


• AWStats Bar – Displays unique and total visitors from an AWStats installation.


• Colors – HTML color picker.


• IconXtractor – Converts between images and icon files.

Now that I have seen and used some great widgets, it is time to create a widget . I am tasked at work with creating one of these widgets to monitor website traffic. Wish me luck!