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Ask Download Squad: What are widgets worth? (Download Squad)

Jul 29th 2005 10:17AM I used to use Konfabulator. I was ambivalent until I started using Dashboard and heard some pretty interesting notions at WWDC 2005. I think widgets are valuable but not for the ones that are standalone apps, per se. There are a limited number of functions for little standalone widgets and if they have not already been fulfilled, they will be soon. There are two other, more valuable classes of widgets, only one of which Konfabulator addresses. The one K addresses are widgets as clients of internet information services--rss feeds, web applications, that sort of thing. The second class, the one I think Dashboard hits, are as alternate views or extensions of existing applications. The Delicious Library widget is the best example, here, and I think Apple developers have just barely scratched the surface. Beyond user value, both execution engines have their warts, neither one of them are going to win any resource or performance awards (if there were such a thing) any time soon. I do like that Dashboard uses more standard web development technologies and that the advanced plugins you create for it also work as is in Safari.