Google Gadgets Now For Your Website

[engine]

Google Inc. said on Tuesday it is making it easier to add hundreds of miniature programs to independent Web sites, in a move that brings handy features to users instead of making users rely on Google.com.

The Web search leader has jumped ahead of rivals -- such as Apple Computer Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- who offer mini-applets or "gadgets" when the user has installed special software on individual computer desktops.

Google Gadgets, which have previously been available for users to add to a Web user's personalised Google homepage or their own computers via Google Desktop software, are now available for Web page owners to add to their own sites.

Google Gadgets Now For Your Website [today.reuters.co.uk]

[google.com...]

[httpwebwitch]

nm
edit reason: spoke too soon

[edited by: httpwebwitch at 12:04 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2006]

[dillonstars]

I thought Konfabulator was a set of desktop widgets... this is very different; being for use on your homepage...

[edited by: dillonstars at 12:05 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2006]

[httpwebwitch]

sorry - these aren't quite the same as Widgets, though the spirit is similar

I might try to make some of these

[edited by: httpwebwitch at 12:07 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2006]

[dillonstars]

sorry, yes your're right.. i got the wrong end of the stick

[Web_speed]

Google Inc. said on Tuesday it is making it easier to add hundreds of miniature programs to independent Web sites, in a move that brings handy features to users instead of making users rely on Google.com

Woopi...

Everyone, rush over and help the octopus spread it's tentacles even further.

[edited by: Web_speed at 12:09 pm (utc) on Oct. 4, 2006]

[digicam]

Can't really see the point for a website, the tools will be heavily Google branded and will make people think google, google and google - I want them to think buy buy buy

[zeus]

I have noticed that last many new things that comes from google, is tools/stuff that force/make the user/webmaster relay on google and those things gives A LOT of information away from business or person that uses this, plus the scary thing is that the Privacy Policy is full with holes, which is often mentioned in PC magazines.

gmail,sitmap(which should not be nessesary),tools,toolbar,desktop.....

[dillonstars]

Can't really see the point for a website, the tools will be heavily Google branded and will make people think google, google and google - I want them to think buy buy buy

They're not all Google branded by any means.

Also, they're probably more tatgeted at the myspace-type homepage than an ecommerce/sales site.

[jwolthuis]

Great, now we can look forward to websites displaying my local weather, shop at Amazon, and let me play blackjack.

Perhaps I'm missing the point, but can someone point me to a Gadget that actually does some useful work?

[jonrichd]

It looks like the URL to get the gadgets should be
[google.com ]

(without the final trailing slash). Doing it that way gives you a different button that leads you to customizing the gadget and copying the code. The original link lets you add the gadget to your G homepage.

[mrjohncory]

Fellow webmasters, please do not put these weird, useless things on your websites. I do not want them crowding out useful content as I browse.

[jtara]

Since when is Google known for gadgets?

For the most part, these are pretty tacky.

I'll give them props for the "Bert" Terror Alert Level gadget, though.

Give it to Google to call a widget a gadget.

I was about to say "since when does Google have personalized homepages." Then I looked. How long has that "Personalized home" link been there in the upper right?

[JeremyL]

LOL, this is my favorite one
[google.com...]

[SEOPTI]

WTH, lucky cookie?

[Gajadhar]

This looks interesting :)

Hope this helps ;)

[willybfriendly]

And here I was thinking that Google was a search engine. Silly me...

WBF

[iblaine]

Would be nice to see more productivity tools come out on this thing. I got the desktop going simply for the ability to easily check google analytics & airfare prices. 99% of the gadgets out there seem to be useless games/toys.

[httpwebwitch]

I know that everyone visiting my website will want to know the current phase of the moon. And then when someone wants to know the phase of the moon, they will come to my site. Thank you, Google! :)

Actually tried the "six degrees of wikipedia" one -- and it's not working.

[httpwebwitch]

A lot of these gadgets are showing "temporarily unavailable" or other such messages. Impressive. I suppose those gadgets are experiencing the WebmasterWorld effect?

[dillonstars]

If these things really take off on homepages like MySpace, it could be a fantastic piece of viral marketing from Google...

[howiejs]

This is GREAT for google and also good for the webmasters producing these

THINK:
How can you get your content / brand across and make it easy to distribute

[lorenzinho2]

Couple of comments:

- They are ALL branded Google
- They are primarily targeted at Blogger bloggers
- Most are developed by outside developers.

The top of the widget is branded to the developer, the bottom is branded to Google. There are more than 1200 of them so far, and I expect that number to go through the roof as developers attempt to use Google for distribution.

The two things that bug me about these widgets are:

1) they are optimized for 300+ px, meaning they don't work well in sidebars

2) they are script based, meaning they won't work on MySpace or other UGC communities that allow flash / html embeds.

[dillonstars]

Interesting comments lorenzinho2. I must admit I didn't know that you couldn't embed them into a MySpace page... that will certainly limit their appeal.

[Tropical Island]

I added the "Simple Calculator" to one of my reservation pages as a test so people could figure out the actual cost of a stay with ease.

Couple of things I don't like.

If you click on any of the links on the gadget you are either taken to the developer's web site (what a link bonanza!) or to Google's gadget page. These new pages open in the same page NOT in a new window which means you could lose your visitor.

It's too big.

[adam_sah]

re:missing slash gives you different results

Hi-- this is Adam Sah from Google, just wanted to dispel any
conspiracy theories-- the difference between the two directories
was a technical one, because some gadgets don't work on 3rd party
sites, and I wanted to make sure people had a good experience.
For example, the Google Logo gadget depends on the particular DOM
of the Personalized Homepage and wouldn't work on other sites.
We filter out such "inline required" gadgets from this new
directory.

By adding a slash, you're confusing our servers, which ignore the
synd parameter, and you're taken the regular directory for
Personalized Homepage.

Thus, the correct URLs:
- [google.com...]
for Google Gadgets for Your Webpage (aka open syndication)
- [google.com...]
for gadgets to add to Personalized Hompage
(normally reached by visiting GPH and clicking the "add more
to this page" link)

cheers!
adam
architect, Google Gadgets API

[Compworld]

Not crazy about the Hotbar smiley program. Isn't Hotbar spyware?

[google.com...]

[joeduck]

Adam - great to see you at WebmasterWorld and congratulations on the coming gadgetization of sites. I bet even you couldn't see this explosion of interest back at the launch around Mashup Camp 1 in February! Great work by you and your team.