Google Gadgets Come to You 122
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.'"
Sorry, but.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sorry, but.. (Score:4, Informative)
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OMG!!! (Score:2)
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Whatever editors take the original & hack it down to size before 'publishing' it.
This is one of the reasons I hit up Google News for articles without many details. The article usually isn't that way because there aren't any details, but because they've been stripped out.
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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.. (Score:5, Informative)
This submission should have read "Reuters is reporting the release of 'Google Gadgets'".
Belgium vs. Google exemplified (Score:5, Interesting)
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You must be new here.
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Re:Belgium vs. Google exemplified (Score:4, Informative)
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.
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I agree that there is a difference between Yahoo! News and Google News, but I don't agree that it is as disparate as apples and oranges.
IMHO, Apples and oranges would be comparing Google News to Wired Magazine in print. You read them both, but that's where the similarity ends. In this case, we have two major search engines displaying headlines to news stories and providing links to content. They are plenty similar to Joe Public who just looks at the front page to see what's up in the world today. It d
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Again, I disagree. Show me one page where Google News is also displaying the content. A Google News link will take you to the orignal content provide if you want to read the full article, while Yahoo News provides you full contect of the article on their own site. Its still apples v/s oranges.
Re: Google News not similar to Yahoo News (Score:1)
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Just like the rest of us, Google can't fix stupid.
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But no working link. (Score:2, Informative)
In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Funny)
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Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!
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Cause.. (Score:1)
Myspace (Score:2)
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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.
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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
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Oh, the irony! (Score:1, Redundant)
Owch. (Score:2)
Throw MSN into it as well next time. The brain-explody will reach much further and stain more carpet.
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Google promoting Spyware? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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I just want to thank you for using the proper terminology, and not saying "QA this stuff". Pet peeve of mine, being involved in Software QA and QC for 13 years now. QA != QC != SQA
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> and not saying "QA this stuff"
Any noun can be verbified
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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 proce
What do you think their toolbar is? (Score:2)
1,220 dynamic applications (Score:2, Funny)
Wake me when there's a googol of them.
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No, but that's the point isn't it.
Google Gadgets Come to You! (Score:4, Funny)
Google News (Score:2, Insightful)
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http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Google
Let's get this straight.... (Score:1)
However... (Score:2)
I would think having a published API would be more important than the number of already available gadgets.
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Google like's Opera's idea, eh? (Score:1)
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Gadgets to Widgets Conversion (Score:2)
The terminology is getting really odd, though... gadgets+widgets = gidgets?
Go-go-Gadget Google?
Some thoughts on Google Gadgets (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:4, Funny)
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Here is a treefrog, if slashdot would allow it:
<script src="http://gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://abowma n
Of course, slashdot will not allow it, but you can paste int
Now "how", but "from whom" (Score:3, Insightful)
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
Reminds me of that one show... (Score:4, Funny)
HowTo (Score:1)
However, (Score:4, Funny)
What's new here... (Score:2)
Mac reference (Score:1)
Am I the only one... (Score:5, Funny)
yes (Score:1)
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Come on, this is slashdot! (Score:1)
The expression No shit, Sherlock springs to mind...
Also, please congratulate me on my first "Come on, this is slashdot" rant!
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is just like telling that new BMW's come with smaller steering wheel (the little circle, that allows to turn)...
Come on, Asteroids? And what's that?
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Not the T(original)FA (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, that's what Tetris is (Score:2, Funny)
TFA (Score:1)
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Ripoff of WebPasties (Score:1)
"geometric puzzle game Tetris" ? (Score:1)
I know, I know, I'm offtopic.
Where's the news? (Score:3, Informative)
I just wish a few of them were more customizable.
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http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/14/134623 1 [slashdot.org]
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From TFA : (Score:4, Interesting)
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: html from scratch, using vi, on a vt100 (Score:1)
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I code html in vt100 emulation, but I use emacs.
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XHTML issues (Score:1)
Clearly the best web page gadget on the list. (Score:3, Funny)
nice gesture (Score:1)
I don't like it (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Go Go Gadget ! (Score:2)
Somehow the fact that Yahoo! has had Yahoo! Widgets [yahoo.com] for months, seems to shine down on the Google Gadgets. Recently, I did up a Spidermonkey+ZZiplib hack to get Y!'s widgets running on my linux box [dotgnu.info] - it is not impossible for Konfabulator to work elsewhere either. But in general, I didn't expect Google to much of a follower into a market, but it seems that recently they've been doing that ?
Gmail was innovation ... *shrug*
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When did yahoo make HTML-ized widgets, and how can I add them to my page?
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I wish a Perl (wi|ga)dget engine? (Score:2)
I wish I could replace the Yahoo widget engine by some new Perl widget engine, which would take care of displaying the stuff in the GUI from simple and elegant Perl code and XML. That would be cool.
(No, TK doesn't count. Nor does wxPerl. It needs to be much simpler)
Nice idea (Score:1)
Or use bookmarks with keywords instead (Score:1)
Google Gadgets has a Wikipedia search gadget and a dictionary gadget.
In Firefox I bookmarked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%25s [wikipedia.org] , gave it keyword 'w', and just enter "{Ctrl-L}w anime" to jump to a Wikipedia article. The %s gets replaced by the rest of what you type in the location field.
Here are some more:
You can run Google Gadgets in Dashboard now (Score:2)
Mesa Dynamics released Amnesty Generator [mesadynamics.com] 0.5b, a utility that converts any Google web page gadget into a Mac OS X Dashboard widget. The software "automates the process of embedding [Google's] gadget code into locally hosted web pages that are implemented inside Dashboard widgets."
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Not so, my man. (Score:1, Informative)
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