Widgets and gadgets

There is number of *ohs!* and *wows!* about the widgets and gadgets last time. The whole thing is a branch of the Web 2.0 movement, where the focus is no longer at the developer, but at the visitor of a portal. Professional and amateur web masters, willing to make a change and live up a webpage, started to use these things in the same way how a women uses the lipstick - as most of things you can do it right or you can do it wrong :)

There is at least number of possible understanding of what widget/gadget is:

• Microsoft AJAX objects like the Accordion
• AJAX in general - some of guys do even desktop share basing on the approach!
• simple java script with css elements like the last.fm

• gadget on desktop like for example Yahoo Widgets (working also on Windows Vista)
  

Disgresssion: Interesting that similar thing was offered some time ago by Microsoft as Active Desktop and now it takes the 14th place at 20 the worst Microsoft ideas list :)

The variety is quite wide in here and it seems, like there is a long way to go, but the first steps are already made.

• W3C published the first version of widget specification at the second part of 2006 and there is number of updates this year.
• Google also notice the phenomenon and it started to provids the special vortal to look for these things.
• Microsoft as usually is a step behind, but they seems to have problems with Ze Germans. The guys behind my western border invided that page and published number of gadgets like Postleitzahlen Suche :)

Widget/gadget story is like the special effects in movies - It is so easy to go too far. That's why at the end of the road I did not use any of them in the common part of the blog :)