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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.'"
It's Yahoo! with the !.
Thank! You!
The! Yahoo! Branding! Team!
hurrah for Active Desktop !
lets party
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.
I hate it and can't get it to go away.
There is no "uninstall" in the program group, and it does not show up in Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.
I just want it to go away.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
I love the requirements they list (especially note the last one):
* Windows XP with Service Pack 1 installed or Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 installed, or newer, or Mac OS X 10.3 or newer.
* A connection to the Internet.
* 512 megabytes of RAM is recommended.
* Lots of spare time.
The Internet is full. Go Away!!!
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.
Widget could be useful... maybe. But before we they can even there, they need to integrate better with the rest of the "user experience". I am using Dashboard (I tried konfab for the kicks, but they seemed pretty much equivalent), and the widget don't behave like the rest of the OS. I can't copy past in all of them (can't copy from bloody dictionnary!), most of them don't have preferences I can adjust to fit my needs and they only the most limited fonctionnality for any operation (calculator app. is pretty dumb but it shines when compared to the widget conterpart).
I know these are free, simple coding projects, but come on! They have to behave like a proper app. for them to enhance my productivity. As far as I am concerned, widget are just a "proof of concept" for the moment. I am still waiting for a widget that does more tham show me where the sun is and isn't shinning (I am being overly harsh here, but you get my point).
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."
This is one of those programs that you've gotta download to decide if you like it. I think it's good looking, and I like having a calendar and notepad on my desktop. I also like that you can change the "widgets." ie--the "slide show" had options for how long to show each slide, but I use it to show my syllabi so I know my homework and I didn't want it to change. So I got the "Widget converter" and added a "change slides never" option to the preferences menu (which now changes the slides ever zero seconds). It took me all of 5 minutes and I have essentially zero programming experience. I recommend looking through the "Widgets" to see if you think there's anything useful, and decide if it's worth its cost in RAM usage (which I haven't found to be too bad).
Keyhole became Google Earth.
Deja News (Deja.com) became Google Groups.
Urchin Log Analyzer became Google Analytics . (More on this change)
Sprinks became wholly subsumed into Google AdWords, not even as its own sub-brand.
There are nowhere near as many Googles as there are Yahoo!s, but Google's making a clear move toward matching Yahoo! as far as brands go.
For more information, click here.
It was pretty cool for about two weeks, but once the appeal of the the cutesy gamey widgets wear out (or take up too much screen space), there are few that offer any real utility that isn't matched elsewhere more easily. A well-equipped Firefox can easily replace most of the widgets (ex. Forcastfox, Foxytunes, etc.). And really, who needs half a dozen portal widgets? Leave Firefox open and in two clicks you can select a different search function, then search away wherever (though certainly not torrentspy.com cough cough cough).
The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it. - William Gibson
I believe the point of these widget development/runtime engines is to provide a method of developing/deploying simple easy-to-create applications. With a stressing on "easy to create".
Instead of having to write alot of C/C++ or Java code and worry about compatibility and lots of other issues, you can just (from my understanding) follow a method the engine outlines (in this case I believe primarily XML, maybe some javascript) and create a small very specific desktop application.
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.
My favorite Google-related widget is ImagesForever (Mac only because it uses perl and curl). Many others were made to access Google, but only this one actually does something more interesting than just provide a search box.
Disclaimer: I wrote ImagesForever, so I'm biased.
-- thinkyhead software and media
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.
Now, while Google Dashboard plugins can be called 'widgets', what was the point of including that sentence at the end? Yes, I see it was a quote from the original article, and it's just as oddly placed there, but it is even more odd here.
"Microsoft releases Windows Vista. Microsoft rival Apple also offers an OS."
"Honda releases new Civic Hybrid. Honda rival Toyota also offers a hybrid."
"Devil offers Eve an Apple. Devil rival God also offers knowledge."
I mean, really. Did the reporter just HAVE to find a way to include Google in this story? Maybe a bit of commentary "Yahoo rival Google offers Widgets through their more extensible Google Dashboard" or something, but just 'Google too!' is a bit odd.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.