Google Adds Widgets to Homepage

Panaphonix writes "Google announced that their personalized homepage now has an API for developers to add their own modules. Samples are available in this directory."

Comments

You have to give Google some props....

[8127972]

..... for how easy creating these apps happens to be. If I were still teaching, I would likely use this as a means to teach basic programming skills. They also have something else going for them excellent documentation that is easily understood by my wife who is a non geek. To top it all off, it's using HTML, XML, and Javascript. Three open and accessible languages that are widely used on a variety of platforms.

Methinks that one of the reasons behind this is that they want to "embrace and extend." Sound familiar?

Re:I read this on Digg.com 2 days ago

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet you continue to come here, maybe it's time to get a life?

response to konfabulator

[DarkClown]

Wow, didn't take them long to drum up a response to the yahoo konfabulator thing.
hooray for more google toys.

Re:response to konfabulator

[Baricom]

I don't think this has anything to do with Konfabulator. I think the point is to keep people away from live.com. A good thing, too, because I was just about to force myself to learn Microsoft's strange (and poorly documented) gadgets API.

I switched to My Yahoo! when they opened their portal to RSS. Now, I'll probably switch to Google's portal.

The trick to getting people like me to use your portal is to provide ways of getting my content into your page.

Ooh, ooh, me too!

[BandwidthHog]

Odd to see Google doing the me-too thing. As soon as I saw the clock widget I knew the API was gonna be the now-standard HTML/XML/Javascript format used by Konfabulator/Yahoo, Apple and (I assume) Microsoft. So what does Google bring to the party? I guess these widgets live on web servers rather than users’ hard drives, but that of course ties them into the browser window. Perhaps we can expect them to put out an executable soon that will let them exist outside the browser (and thus be fully useful), but that puts them at merely the same point the others are at.

Why the hell is everybody so hot and bothered about Widgets all of a sudden? I bought a Konfabulator license way back when, and pressing F12 brings up Apple’s Dashboard, yet I still check wunderground.com to see if the weather will be cooperating with my athletic endeavours a few hours into the future. Granted, I was one of those who thought the iPod was no big deal, but Widgets have been with us in their modern incarnation for a few years now, and world+dog still doesn’t seem to give a damn. Makes me think they really are just trying to keep up with the rest of the pack on this one.

Re:Ooh, ooh, me too!

[stubear]

"and (I assume) Microsoft."

Not only do you assume correctly, Microsoft is going to allow their widgets to work both online (live.com - gadgets, and start.com - startlets, more (microsoftgadgets.com gadgets here) but on the user's desktop as well once Vista is released. Perhaps these gadgets will even share the same code and can live on both the desktop and live.com simultaneously.

Re:Ooh, ooh, me too!

[TheJorge]

Sure, it's nothing new. But to early adopters, a lot of new and exciting stuff has really been around for a long time. The iPod's the perfect example. Many people didn't realize you could carry around more than a CD's worth of music on one of those little portable things everyone had. With some level of market penetration, the masses come to realize what's available.

Google did the same thing with AJAX and Google maps. How long had the XML HTTPRequest been around? And now it's the bees' knees. Google's got a strong userbase (and following) of geeks, making its open-and-extendable products much better immediately. Widgets are just the next idea Google's taking hold of.

I do worry that they'll put search on the back burner once their start pages have all these bells and whistles.

Google platform/portal?

[l2718]

With this Google is continuing to move in the all-the-info-you-need-in-one-place direction, also known as a web portal. They are doing it in their cool and effective ways, but that's where they seem to be going.

Re:Google platform/portal?

[T-Ranger]

Do both?

Google search: http://www.google.com/
Google Portal: http://www.google.com/ig

Doesnt seem all that troublesome to me.

good idea but...

[endrue]

wait until you have better things than a clock and "ColorJunction". Everyone's personalized google homepage will look like a webdesign 101 student who just learned how to cut 'n paste javascript.

I now have a place...

[Billosaur]

...for that /. dupe eliminator module I've been working on.

This. Is. Evil.

[dada21]

Google's use of the word "widget" is Evil. There are some words that shouldn't be redefined, especially by a megacorp.

I've used widget for years - maybe 15. When making a generic description of a generic item, widget is the placeholder word to use.

Now what do we do? Can they trademark a commonly used nothing-word? Will we see Google Ptooie and Google Grrr next?

Re:This. Is. Evil.

[Nightspark]

Google didn't use the word widget, I don't know why /. keeps posting references to Google Widgets, which don't exist. They're simply personalized homepage modules. Regardless, one use of the word widget has come to be small open applications running on a shared platform. So even if they did use the word widget, they wouldn't be redefining it.

Re:This. Is. Evil.

[gstoddart]

Google's use of the word "widget" is Evil. There are some words that shouldn't be redefined, especially by a megacorp.

I've used widget for years - maybe 15. When making a generic description of a generic item, widget is the placeholder word to use.

Well, fortunately for the rest of us, you're not the final arbiter over the usage of the word widget.

According to Webster:

Main Entry: widget
Pronunciation: 'wi-j&t
Function: noun
Etymology: alteration of gadget
1 : GADGET
2 : an unnamed article considered for purposes of hypothetical example

Apple uses the term widgets to define the components in it's dashboard application.

Hello, if you go to you personal page here on Slashdot, you'll find:

This is your User Info page. There are thousands more, but this one is yours. You most likely are not so interested in yourself, and probably would be more interested in the Preferences links you see up top there, where you can customize Slashdot, change your password, or just click pretty widgets to kill time.

Over time widget has come to be a placeholder for actual objects (in examples of economics for example), any gadget, and it has also come to mean "small, componentized pieces of code".

Googles use of the word widget is consistent with currently accepted usage of the word. They haven't arbitrarily redefined it. They haven't even used it in a new context.

Get over it. It's not your word exclusively.

closer to google ecommerce hosting

[ajainy]

1st step free froogle and free listing of products
2nd step widgets
3rd step pool of programmers who can program widgets
4th step services with available pool..
5th step show me money!!

Copying live.com

[badriram]

Oh please, lets stop that praises, and call this what it is, a copy/rip off of Microsoft live.com gadgets.....

The Platform.

[headkase]

I think Google being nice by allowing really anyone to use their backend data and infrastructure, it seems like the modern day equivalent of the Stone Soup fable. What makes me think Google will succeed is that it's an open platform that anyone can target and being open allows participation that leads to those pesky positive-feedback economic effects whose acknowlegement was resisted even to the very recent past.

Re:The Platform.

[Anonymous Coward]

What is open about Google ? Their main product is their search engine, and yet Amazon's (a retailer) search engine platform (Alexa) is more open than Google. Infact, Google's openness is like a little demo, while Alexa is the real deal, where anyone can create their own search engine.

Google is an out and out content company which has roughly a dozen services, none of which can be reasonably used in any commercial application.

Anyone can compete with Google...all you need is a geek, a computer, a web host and some knowledge about web development.

Re:The Platform.

[headkase]

The API gives you access to a enterprise class web-crawler for one. And we're saying the same thing, you say content I say data and infrastructure. The content needs delivery and Google giving you access to their server farms to build your own custom logic on top of their services/information.

Hotmail?

[ZiakII]

Now that widgets can be made for Google does that mean we will see a Hotmail Widget? Right now I use Google's desktop and its a PITA to check my hotmail account vs. having it displayed in Google's system, with this being now open source will this be possible?

Good, finally

[brunes69]

Maybe now I can add some of the mor euseful widgets at My Yahoo! to the Google homepage... lik a stock ticker that does more than just US exchange, or a TV listings mondule for more than just US listings.

My Yahoo! has been way ahead of Google on this for some time, hopefully this will allow Google to catch up quicker by leveraging third-party developers.

my experience

[adpowers]

I've been up all night writing a widget. Let me tell you this: the development environment is a pain in the arse. Using their developer widget, it gives you the option of not caching the various widgets. I tried using this tool to not cache mine (so I could reload easily and see changes to the code), but it didn't work reliably. Whenever you moved the widget around to a different spot, it would go to a new revision of the code... and it was almost never the latest revision. This was so frustrating. What I ended up doing was renaming my widget every revision (also a huge pain in the arse). I ended up renaming it over 40 times during the course of the night. Then you have to add the widget back to your personalized home and go through all the steps again. Blast. I'm not bitter :).

If you want to see the culmination of my night's work, plug this into the widget manager: http://andrewhitchcock.org/musicmobs/w.xml

My widget pulls data from musicmobs. You can look at similar artists or find interesting playlists. If you visit that page, you can upload your iTunes library to make the recommendations more accurate, and it gives you the ability to upload your own playlists (which then become visible in the widget). Check it out!

Andrew

Teaching basic programming

[l2718]

\begin{rant}

Call me an old-fashioned nit-picker, but I still think that for people who will need to write serious programs, writing 20-line programs in C is the right way to learn basic programming skills. User-interface design etc can wait until people understand how to interate over a table, how to do arithmetic, and most importantly how to convert ideas about solutions to computer code. I've seen CS students who were started on OOP in Java (or C++). Of course the Profs found OOP cool and important, but this meant the students had to deal with software design issues (which is what OOP is all about) before they understood how to write a function that accomplished something. Once you've learned how to program (in C, Fortran, or LOGO for that matter), you can start thinking about user-interface issues, program design issues, efficiency of algorithms, etc. But the bottom-up approach to learning how to programming works better than the top-down style.

\end{rant}

Re:Teaching basic programming

[MullerMn]

How beautifully appropriate that your rant about old school programming is marked up in LaTeX rant tags.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[m50d]

C is a bad way to start - you need to learn how to do such grungy programming at some stage, but it can wait until you've done something nicer. Also, it's good to be able to introduce OO without switching languages. I recommend python for learning to program - simple syntax, enforced good indent style, language doesn't get in your way when you're doing simple things, but the advanced things including both OO and functional concepts are there for when you want or need to learn them. Only downside is many other languages are horrible by comparison - one advantage for learning C first is it makes you appreciate what you have with a modern language.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[/ASCII]

I think it's the other way around. OO is an advanced concept, one that shouldn't be introduced at once. I think that a struggling programer has his/her hands full just learning the language syntax. It's a much better idea to start using a language witha small, simple syntax like C or MATLAB.

And yes, writing any non-trivial program is a chore in C because it is so low level. But it really is a simple language.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[m50d]

I think it's the other way around. OO is an advanced concept, one that shouldn't be introduced at once. I think that a struggling programer has his/her hands full just learning the language syntax. It's a much better idea to start using a language witha small, simple syntax like C or MATLAB.

But with python you can learn the rest of the language and completely ignore the OO stuff until you've learnt the core language, and that's how I teach it. And yet, when you come to use it, the OO is in there at a very deep level. That's what's so great about it.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[D-Cypell]

Quite often, I am asked by non-programmers which language they should use to get started. My answer is always the same... 'get yourself some BASIC training' (man, I love that pun!). Most people reject my suggestion because they want to write games in their first four minutes or because other people respond with 'YEEECH BASIC?? You should learn to code with an exposed processor core and a soldering iron!'.

The fact of the matter is, there is a language out there specifically designed for people new to programming to dip their toe in the water and learn some of the basic concepts like loops, conditions and variables without having to worry about memory models, pointers and header files.

After spending a few months writing the standard "Hello World", "Im thinking of a number.." style programs, then you can branch out almost anywhere.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[hey!]

There's only one important skill in programming, which is this: minimizing what you need to know in order to know everything you need to know in any given context.

However, it occurs in many levels of organization, in infinite combinations, from crafting expressions (reorganizing conditionals using DeMorgan's law) to functional decomposition to object oriented design and beyond.

User interface design is not a good thing to mix up with basic programming skills when teaching, simply because it is a complex subject in itself. Doing so defies the above principle on a meta-level: you're asking your students to master two subjects at once. However, I'm not against GUI programming provided problems are sufficiently simple, and scale in programming difficulty as the student acquires mastery. How many kids learned to program because they wanted to create games?

Mathematics is still a good field to get beginning programming problems because you can assume that the students (at least at a U level) have basic algebra, and it provides a rich field of problems to solve. However variety is the spice of life, and it doesn't hurt to have a little fun too. Sometimes when I'm coaching an athlete, I will recommend a change in his program because he's not getting enough stimulation to achieve his best. In athletics, you have to trade of repetition of a program, which builds a base of skills, with a bit of novelty, which motivates him to try harder. Learning anything else is no different.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[Anonymous Coward]

I see the +2 Python modifier is in effect.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[La Fortezza]

It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students
that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they
are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.

--Edsger Dijkstra's Evaluations of Programming Languages (c. 1982)

Re:Teaching basic programming

[Slime-dogg]

The fact of the matter is, there is a language out there specifically designed for people new to programming to dip their toe in the water and learn some of the basic concepts like loops, conditions and variables without having to worry about memory models, pointers and header files.

Yes. That language is called PASCAL.

In all seriousness, BASIC is not the language that you want to instruct students with. More viable languages are ones that get a programmer accustomed to the syntax and flow of one of the more serious languages, or are those languages themselves. I learned to program in C++. You don't have to touch pointers in order to learn how to progam. They can be introduced later on, as an extension or feature of the language.

Better yet, teach the students to program using Java or C#. One of the best features of those languages is the simplicity, the verbosity of the compiler errors, and the immediate satisfaction of having something substantial when it is all said and done.

Re:Teaching basic programming

[mrbooze]

Thank you! I'm glad someone else remembers Pascal. It was my first real language training as well, as the community college I went to required it as the Introduction to Programming course.

The fact that you pretty much *have* to move on to other languages afterwards is a great point. It makes it practically impossible to get the kind of people who think whatever language they learned first is the proper solution to every problem. (When all you have is a hammer, etc.)

Copying Dashboard

[adpowers]

Come on now. Don't go the Microsoft route. Microsoft blatantly ripped of Apple's Dashboard. Anyone in their right mind would know that Apple was the One True inventor of widgets. ;)

Re:Copying Dashboard

[badriram]

Apple did not use gadgets online, sure, we could say konfabulator was there first, then someone else will say apple had small applications like clock.....

However we are not talking you desktop here, we are talking hosting a small web widget on one server, and loading it on another webpage.... IMHO a much better concept than just desktop widgets.

Re:Copying Dashboard

[adpowers]

Well, I was just trying to copy the trend. I was hoping someone would rebuttal me with Konfabulator. (hence the winking)

I must admit, there are a bunch of advantages of having these hosted on a server. First, Google gives you a method to easily request webpages (so you don't have to worry about the quirks of every browser). Also, they forward all requests through their server, which has the added advantage of caching the requests. The script I wrote is pretty slow because it has to bounce around a few servers and compile a bunch of data, but Google caches it, so it'll last for a few hours, reducing traffic and making users happier.

When playing around with it, I came to admire the system they have in place to make sure the widgets don't interfere and there are no namespace issues. Each widget is assigned an ID, so you just put some code in there which is replaced at load time with a number. You put this in every id and function name, and then there are no problems. In my other post I wail on them, but it is actually quite clever.

Andrew

Re:Copying Dashboard

[peragrin]

I think apple called it deskbar, or something simlar for Mac OS 7.5. Whatever the case I was using similar toys with fvwm back in 1996. Konfabulator was hardly an orginal idea. Maybe a new implenetation, utilizing new tech but not orginial.

Re:Copying Dashboard

[Yahweh Doesn't Exist]

>IMHO a much better concept than just desktop widgets

yes because who wants to just press a button and have all their widgets instantly fade in? we want to have to open a compatible web browser, load the page, look up all the widgets, download the data...

can someone give me an example of a widget that is better in this way because being used to Apple's Dashboard widgets and using them many times every day it's hard for me to imagine why you would want them to be "...on the internet" except for their obviously patentable new nature.

Re:Copying Dashboard

[k_187]

portability. This way you can get your widgets on whichever platform you're using, even if its not your normal one.

Re:I read this on Digg.com 2 days ago

[resprung]

At least the Slashdot editors post consistently wrong grammar...

it's != its
they're != theyre

I guess I've read this site for 6 years now, no change... :-)

Re:I read this on Digg.com 2 days ago

[nitemayr]

I've had success with a firefox based browser and adblock plus (for those ads on digg) you might want to check that out.

i hope this doesn't slow down the search engine...

[legalize.ganja.now.]

...because i'm not going to use it. i mean, when i type google.com, i want to do websearch and i don't need toys like rolling eyes for that.
google's succes is based on it's simplicity, hope they don't ruin it...

Imageshack Hosting Widget

[Grimmthething]

I created a quick imageshack hosting widget. To give it a try add this link to the "Create a Section" spot. It is a really simple one, but for me is very useful. Imageshack hosting widget http://base.google.com/base/a/16800097909005850654

Forgot the url...

[jefu]

Should have included the URL for the site :
weather.gov

Re:i hope this doesn't slow down the search engine

[infinityxi]

The keyword here is optional. For anyone who has setup and checked out the personalized google page, they will notice that nothing on these page is forced upon the user. You have the preference to put as much or as little as you want on the personalized portal. I've been hearing the same concerns and exaggerated worry since google started implementing this feature. Doesn't seem like much has changed and while I agree with your sentiment that a lot of google's appeal is in the simplicity of their search page, as http://search.yahoo.com/ and http://search.msn.com/ have thankfully modeled, I don't believe this will be the turning point of seeing a flood of html and javascript on google's page forced upon anyone.

So easy

[GweeDo]

This was amazingly easy. I setup a Widget at: http://witendofi.com/widgets/witendoficard.xml

It is a Google IG version of the WiFi Cards we let users have (see grebowiec.net for an example, it is in the right sidebar).

I had this thing working in under 10 minutes. I like. I will be expanding this. The timing was perfect, I actually started on a Konfabulator widget for this just last night!

Re:Not Newsworthy At All

[diegocgteleline.es]

Agreed - the "personalized homepage" at google seems to be a very poor competitor WRT live.com. For example, adding or closing a "widget" in google.com/ig triggers a RELOAD of the page. live.com adds and removes them without reloading anything. Clicking in the "more content" in the content sidebar opens another web page. THe add buttons in that same side bar are ugly buttons not nice text links. live.com had a javascript RSS reader which supports images and google.com/ig added it later and it doesn't support images. Also, live.com is already translated to spanish

It's somewhat weird that being google the "ajax leader" microsoft has beaten google in this field.

Wic Wac Woe

[panthro]

Try this:

http://www.mavrinac.com/projects/wicwacwoe/google. xml

Quite possibly the most useless Google Homepage module available.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

"Grungy programming"? "Low level"?

[morgan_greywolf]

Most people who think that C is low level, grungy programming language haven't written a lick of C code and couldn't write anything significant in C if their life depended on it.

C has very simple syntax. The language doesn't get in your way, and once you want to start doing OO, you can pick up C++ fairly easily once you know C.

One of the problems of learning a language like python first, is that it doens't teach you anything about proper dynamic memory allocation, the use of pointers, the use of operating system APIs, etc.

Scripting languages like Python are nice, but you'll never learn anything about systems-level programming writing things in Python, so, for example, your hands will be tied when new hardware comes along until us C programmers come along and write a library for you to access its driver.

Re:"Grungy programming"? "Low level"?

[Pryon]

One of the problems of learning a language like python first, is that it doens't teach you anything about proper dynamic memory allocation, the use of pointers, the use of operating system APIs, etc.

One person's problem is another's blessing. Who are these people that know about proper dynamic memory allocation? Surely you're not talking about the people writing the code responsible for all stack-smashing bugs out there. Not having to worry about dynamic memory allocation and pointers is a Good Thing. I like C as much as the next person but it has its place. The domain of C is not nearly as wide as its use would suggest.

Languages like Python are great for jobs that are not CPU-bound. Memory allocation and OS APIs should be neatly abstracted away if you're doing anything other than systems programming.

Re:"Grungy programming"? "Low level"?

[Eccles]

One of the problems of learning a language like python first, is that it doens't teach you anything about proper dynamic memory allocation, the use of pointers, the use of operating system APIs, etc.

But that's precisely the reason why you might teach it first. I see that as almost like saying "The problem with teaching kids arithmetic first is it doesn't teach you anything about integrals." First you want to teach the concept of instructions, looping, conditions, and branching, and get those established before you get into more esoteric issues.

Security?

[eurleif]

These widgets apparently allow the developer to use any HTML or JavaScript they want. Couldn't they be used for cross-site scripting (XSS)?

Welcome back to 1997

[Devil]

I never use Google/ig, because the precise reason I started using Google (in addition to their better search) was that I was sick of "portals", where every square inch of screen space had to be taken up with something. From the moment I first visited Google, I knew I was looking at something better, because the Google folks decided that they didn't need to tart their site up to look like all those awful circa-1997 portals. Go look at http://www.excite.com/, because that's where we're all headed...*again*. The only difference is that now it's customizable with JavaScript instead of lots of server-side stuff.

No, thank you; I'll stick with regular old google.com or better yet, the Google search bar built into Firefox.

The best interface is no interface.

You're an old-fashioned nit-picker

[nobodyman]

Call me an old-fashioned nit-picker

Hey, you asked for it ;-)

I disagree that C is the ideal learning language, but I agree that the primary importance of learning programming is learning how to think. I'm not even talking necessisarily about OOP concepts, but more generally how to define, approach, and break down problems.

On the other hand, I think the worst thing you could do to a completely green student is to sit them down with a text editor and and compiler. This will only attract people who want to program in the first place and are willing to "tough it out". A good teacher/tool should be able to engage people who wouldn't consider themselves programmers. The first language I learned was LOGO for the TRS-80 and I was instantly hooked - me and my brother tried to one-up each other's spirographs

LOGO is my favorite example of a teaching language. The syntax vocabulary is small and your feedback is entirely visual (at least starting out). At first you're just moving a turtle around and drawing spirograph-like patterns... the programming methodology is almost a passive, secondary experience.

That said, with computers and the net you have many exciting opportunities to teach programming. "Widgets" programming seems like it has promise (maybe not for 5-10 year olds, but probably jr. high and up), but even a campaign editor for Starcraft is basically a turing-complete "language" -- You still get to learn the concepts of a conditional statement, with the added bonus of blowing up aliens. Why not learn that way?

Broken

[n8myton]

I don't know about the rest of you, but it crashes consistently for me. I am using Firefox 1.5 and can think of no reason for it to crash. The formatting is really messed up, and the delete button for the "widgets" doesn't work. I am very dissappointed with this product.