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Yahoo Updates Konfabulator
An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek is reporting that Yahoo! has released a new version of Konfabulator, now rechristened 'Yahoo Widget Engine'. From the article: 'Widgets are useful to portals because they can draw users to their services directly from the desktop, without first having to launch a browser. By providing a more direct route, portals are trying to increase the use of their services, which are tied to online advertising. Yahoo rival search engine Google Inc. also offers widgets.'"
No. There are new widgets, updates to existing widgets, and engine changes. Read the version history for more details.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Well, no. But first of all... Google has widgets?
There's been a lot of widget-developer-friendly changes. See the version history for all of the 3.0 pages. The biggest change has been the introduction of a substantial number of Yahoo! related widgets. More than a few people have basically said Konfabulator/Widget Engine sold out to Yahoo, but to be honest, they're slick, useful widgets if you're the sort that depends on them.
The changes mostly have to do with an increase of speed (built-in XML parser), a better arrangement system involving frames (good things here, as opposed to in HTML) and a little smoother around the edges.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
Microsoft is also dabbling in widget's, or as they call them gadgets. There is a long video interview about the "gadgets" and their version of Dashboard.
Don't know if this is standard procedure, but I was pretty annoyed when, while installing the new version, there were no less then three attempts to integrate yahoo into my computer. Can't these portals release software without trying to take over your computer?
In the beginning the universe was created. This made a lot of people very angry and is widely considered as a bad move.
In case you didn't get the hint, Konfabulator (now YWE apparently) predates Apple Dashboard. A lot.
I got your hint. The problem with your argument is that Apple's Desktop Accessories pre-date Konfabulator by 21 years.
If you're going to argue history, try to have your facts straight.
-- I'm old enough to have lived through six different meanings of the word "hacker."
I'm a pretty serious konfabulator user, and I also write some widgets, which gives me a bit of insight into the inner workings and bugs. This is a pretty major upgrade, but mostly bug fix wise. The old 2.1.1 version was pretty buggy (javascript wise), although there were plenty of workarounds. The newer version has many less missing or incorrectly implimented javascript commands, although 2 minutes of testing revealed several major things they still havent fixed. If it were only the bug fixes, I would wholeheartedly recomend the upgrade, but as is, they added some obnoxious warning messages about using "non-yahoo supported" widgets, which discourages third party widget designers. You can't argue with free though.
No longer works in Windows XP X64 due to WinHTTP library. Way to go Yahoo!
Ubuntu- Linux for human beings.
You should. Yahoo has refocused itself and is starting to be a serious competitor to Google. Things Yahoo has done recently:
Partnered with Six Apart to pre-install Movable Type on their small business hosting
Purchased Del.icio.us
Launched Yahoo Answers
Launched Yahoo Shoposphere
Launched a new version of Yahoo Maps
Launched Yahoo Blog Search
Launched Yahoo Podcasts
Purchased Konfabulator
Launched Yahoo My Web 2.0
Purchased Flickr.com
Yahoo will also soon be launching a new version of Yahoo Mail which will include AJAX/DHTML tech they got from their purchase of Oddpost, RSS, an API and additional design updates.
One can ask if Dashboard is a rip-off of Konfabulator and it would be a very good question. Apple swears up and down it was an independent creation...however...
"However" what? You're right, "one could ask," and the answer would be that Apple did, in fact, create widget-type applets first and independently for consumer operating systems. The year was 1982, and they were called Desktop Ornaments (later renamed Desktop Accessories) for the new Macintosh OS. As much as I used to like it despite is enormous memory footprint, I don't think Konfabulator was a gleam in Arlo Rose's eye in 1982.