Maclive.net:: Google Jumps on the Dashboard Widget Bandwagon
Google Jumps on the Dashboard Widget Bandwagon from Technology Posts
February 24, 2006
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 Since Apple added Dashboard to the Mac OS when it released OS X 10.4, there has been a explosion of widgets that can do just about anything. Some show the latest stock prices, others show the latest news headlines from various web sites, and some even show you were you can get the best price on gasoline in your home town.
There have been 3rd party widgets that interact with Google. For example, there are several widgets that let you search Google right from Dashboard. Now Google has joined the game by releasing three of their own widgets.
If you use Google's Blogger service to post a blog, you will enjoy a widget that makes it easy to add a new post right from Dashboard. If you use Google Personalized Page, you may know that it tracks your search history so you can easily reference past searches. Now there is a widget that displays your past searches. And, if you use Gmail, Google has also released a widget that displays the contents of your Gmail inbox.
Some say that there are already widgets that do most of these things. And while this is true, there is something to be said for using the widgets that Google actually supports. Odds are that there is more going on behind the scenes to make the widgets function correctly. After all, no one knows Google's inner workings better than Google!
Check out this link, if you want to download the widgets. For now there are three widgets, but the initiative has to start somewhere. Odds are that we will see more widgets from Google in the near future. Given the RSS integration in the Google news site, it would be ideal to have a widget that displays the latest headlines from any of its popular categories. I think this is only the first batch of widgets we will see from Google.
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Steve
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By smanke at 7:38 AM
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