Google Gadgets Come to You

An anonymous reader writes "Yahoo is reporting the release of "Google Gadgets", 1,220 dynamic applications for use on your web pages, without needing to connect to Google. 'Google Gadgets range from a miniature look-up for Google Maps or Google Calendar to independent applications ranging from financial information to sports to communication tools and jokes, horoscopes or geometric puzzle game Tetris.'"

Comments

Sorry, but..

[AltGrendel]

... I love the irony of Yahoo reporting this.

Re:Sorry, but..

[crayz]

Try Reuters. The submitter got it wrong

Re:Sorry, but..

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"I love the irony of Yahoo reporting this."

I dunno how ironic that is. Yahoo's positioning themselves as a news source. They wouldn't be so newsworthy if they conveniently left out news from competitors. Heck, even MSNBC's website posts news about Microsoft exploits.

Re:Sorry, but..

[jwest]

See how the first words of the article are "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)" ? The story comes from the Reuters wire service. Yahoo is just passing it along... .

This submission should have read "Reuters is reporting the release of 'Google Gadgets'".

Google promoting Spyware?

[jolyonr]

Ok, so they have their standard disclaimer, but I saw a "Smiley of the Day" gadget from hotbar.com on offer on the first page of that.

Doesn't anyone at Google QC this stuff?

First thoughts are after seeing that - I'm not going to trust ANY of that stuff on websites I have anything to do with.

Jolyon

Re:Google promoting Spyware?

[johkir]

My thoughts exactly. I assumed Google just put it out there, so anyone could put up a web-widget. And looking at the disclaimer at the bottom of the page, that seems to be the case.

Much of the content in this directory was developed by other companies or by Google's users, not by Google. Google makes no promises or representations about its performance, quality, or content. Google doesn't charge for inclusion in this directory or accept payment for better placement.

Maybe Google should protect it's name and prevent spyware garbage.

Re:Google promoting Spyware?

[gosand]

Good job not explaining the difference; educating anyone who might read your post.

Eh, sorry.

QA = Quality Assurance

QC = Quality Control

SQA = Software Quality Assurance

I am sure you can look these terms up, but in a nutshell....

QA is ensuring the quality of a product from many different aspects, and in pure form does not involve testing. QC is testing. SQA is (from a CMM perspective anyway) [you'll have to look that one up too] the process of monitoring and auditing the software development processes and products to ensure that they conform to established standards.

In general, a lot of the industry calls testing 'QA'. I have kind of come to accept that, but still try to use standard terms. At one company I was at, they used the term 'QA' as a verb - i.e. to QA something. Very annoying, and it showed their lack of knowledge on the subject. (which became painfully obvious the longer I was there)

1,220 dynamic applications

[ackthpt]

Wake me when there's a googol of them.

Google Gadgets Come to You!

[Orange Crush]

I was going to make a Soviet Yahoo pun . . . but my heart's just not in it.

Google News

[rootEToTheIPi]

Apparently, Google news didn't think this was news worthy. http://news.google.com/

Re:Google News

[Known Nutter]

Sure they did...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Google+ Gadgets&btnG=Search+News

Some thoughts on Google Gadgets

[quokkapox]

The deal with these things is, they work with Google Desktop Search, and they pop up when you hit SHIFT-SHIFT.

Some of them are pretty cool, and some are a pain in the ass. Several I've tried are downright buggy, and I have some serious questions about security.

You really don't know what you're getting into when you download and allow random code to freely run on your PC. I would assume the gadgets run with the same privileges as GDS itself. Or are they sandboxed?

Anyway, it sure is handy to know I've made 219,430 keystrokes and 26,690 mouse clicks since Thursday. Oh, and that it's warm and sunny outside. And that my battery is charged. Well, the scratch pad is nice. It always auto-saves.

Re:Some thoughts on Google Gadgets

[thelost]

is there a dell batter-explode-o-meter gadget too, so you can see when you battery is going to commit sepuku?

Reminds me of that one show...

[Anonymous Coward]

Go, go, gadget google!

However,

[Shadyman]

In Soviet Russia, Gadgets Google YOU!

Am I the only one...

[DarthChris]

...who read the title as "Google gadgets come to get you"?

Not the T(original)FA

[chipster]

Actually, Reuters is reporting it. Yahoo! is simply syndicating it.

Oh, that's what Tetris is

[Ciarang]

I'm glad the submitter saw fit to explain what Tetris is, otherwise we'd all be scratching our heads.

But no working link.

[kcbnac]

But they didn't put in a working link. Here it is: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open/

Belgium vs. Google exemplified

[BeanBunny]

Not that I agree with the Belgian government, but this makes it easy to see why they don't want Google to display their news. If this story gets put up like this on a popular edited Web site like Slashdot, it would appear to be safe to assume that many people believe that Google News, Yahoo! News, and MSN news are all authoring their own stories.

Re:Belgium vs. Google exemplified

[drinkypoo]

a popular edited Web site like Slashdot

You must be new here.

Re:Belgium vs. Google exemplified

[E IS mC(Square)]

But there is huge difference between Yahoo News and Google News.

Google News only reports the synposis of the news, pointing to the original website itself which served the the news. Yahoo News syndicates the news from other syndicating services and displays the news on their own freaking website.

Stop comparing oranges and apple just to prove your non-existant point.

Re:Myspace

[gunnk]

Could be... but doesn't have to be.

The cool part of this is that they are providing the code so that you can use any of these on your own website -- not just "their space". Of course, by showing you the code it also makes it easy for you to modify to suit your needs.

As a developer I can appreciate having access to this.

Where's the news?

[GoNINzo]

Er, these have been around for awhile as part of the personalized home page stuff. I know because I've been using them for like 3 months or so. I should search back through slashdot, but this is such a dupe. http://www.google.com/ig is the real page, which would have been nice to link to. Just click in the upper left corner to add more clutter to your home page.

I just wish a few of them were more customizable.

In Soviet Russia...

[paranode]

Yahoo helps Google Gadgets come to YOU!

From TFA :

[g253]

"Before these mini-Web based applications can go mainstream, however, Google and the others will have to do away with the need to "cut and paste" code and make it possible to install such programs on Web sites in a few clicks"

Please! Cut and paste is too complicated to create a website? Hello?
This is in fact something I like about google : they try to be friendly to joe average user, but not to the point of thinking all their users are brain-dead.

...
When I was young we used to write all our html from scratch, using vi, on a vt100. And we didn't complain!

Re:Myspace

[carpeweb]

As a web site owner who is not a developer, I second that.

Of course, widgets by themselves aren't going to make compelling content for my web site, but maybe I'll see something that brings in RSS feeds that I can manage to modify to bring in the right combination of content from elsewhere to stimulate a decent blog.

And then I'll call a developer to fix whatever it is I've broken ... :)

Clearly the best web page gadget on the list.

[Critical Facilities]

How can your web page miss with this winner?

I don't like it

[Mori Chu]

I'm sorry, but haven't we already seen this in several different incarnations before? Microsoft's "Active Desktop" in Win98. Konfabulator. Apple's Dashboard.

What is this obsession with "widgets", "applets", and "gadgets"? They inevitably end up doing the exact same boring things: weather, sports scores, stocks, dictionary, and maybe a little game. Great. The world of computing has changed forever.

These things are often bloated little programs because they have to run in JavaScript or some other awful language. They never have consistent UIs, so users can't learn many patterns from using one that they can apply to another. Also, it looks like Google doesn't retain any quality control over who can submit "gadgets", so I'm sure it's bound to be abused by people who want to make malware.

This is a prime example of a "me, too" project, and I fail to see how Google's done it any better than the predecessors. At least with Gmail and Google Maps they innovated those applications compared to what came before. And how does this make Google any money whatsoever? Will they put ads in the gadgets? Why should any stockholder be pleased that Google developers are wasting their time on "gadgets"?

Thumbs down, Google. I am not impressed.

Now "how", but "from whom"

[The Famous Brett Wat]

You really don't know what you're getting into when you download and allow random code to freely run on your PC.

True, but the same is true when you purchase software (including the OEM software that came with the box itself), and also when you insert certain treacherous DRM-enabled audio discs into an insufficiently protected Windows box (e.g. Sony rootkit fiasco). So it's not really a question of how you obtain the code, but whether you trust the party providing it. In Google's case, at least they have an official stance of "don't be evil", which (as we've seen) is a lot better than some other sources. That, and they seem relatively competent in the overall scheme of things.