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From the News Desk
Friday, 30. November 2007
Yahoo Makes It Easy to Buid, Find and Install Desktop Widgets
Yahoo has recently introduced an upgrade of its platform for building, finding and installing desktop widgets, adding features that the portal hopes will encourage more developers to embrace the Yahoo's take on the mini-applications.
Yahoo Widgets Version 4.5, which previously supported only JavaScript, will now allow developers to build widgets in HTML and Adobe Flash. That will make it easier to get existing Web widgets to the desktop, Yahoo said. The Yahoo widgets, small pieces of code that run single-purpose applications like a day planner or weather updates, had previously been focused almost exclusively on the desktop, it noted.
Other new features from Yahoo for developers include the ability to create more engaging desktop widgets by using new rich-media capabilities, including video. Developers also can now download their desktop widgets from any Web page with one to two clicks via the new in-page installer badges. Developers' widgets also can now be discovered by more users via the Yahoo Widget Gallery, which features a new search engine optimization capability, said Scott Derringer, Yahoo director of product management.
Besides developers, Widgets 4.5 brings new features for consumers. For one, Yahoo has made it easier to find new widgets and those rated the best by users by listing them separately on the widgets home page.
The new engine also includes a more robust security model, Yahoo said, with more clear outlines of how the widgets might be accessing local files or what the widget may be downloading from the Internet.
Among the companies using Yahoo's widget platform are Clearspring, Netvibes, and MuseStorm. Clearspring distributes widgets through its clients, which include NBC Universal, Maxim, and Time Magazine. MuseStorm expects to have its applications available through Universal Music Group by the end of the year. Netvibes is offering the widgets it builds to users of its service, which enables people to be their own start pages for the Web.
For Yahoo, widgets are an element of its strategy to regain some of its former glory as an Internet pioneer. The company lags behind Google in search and online advertising, and has seen its attempts at video and social networking usurped by upstarts MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, which are owned by Google.
Yahoo Widgets Version 4.5, which previously supported only JavaScript, will now allow developers to build widgets in HTML and Adobe Flash. That will make it easier to get existing Web widgets to the desktop, Yahoo said. The Yahoo widgets, small pieces of code that run single-purpose applications like a day planner or weather updates, had previously been focused almost exclusively on the desktop, it noted.
Other new features from Yahoo for developers include the ability to create more engaging desktop widgets by using new rich-media capabilities, including video. Developers also can now download their desktop widgets from any Web page with one to two clicks via the new in-page installer badges. Developers' widgets also can now be discovered by more users via the Yahoo Widget Gallery, which features a new search engine optimization capability, said Scott Derringer, Yahoo director of product management.
Besides developers, Widgets 4.5 brings new features for consumers. For one, Yahoo has made it easier to find new widgets and those rated the best by users by listing them separately on the widgets home page.
The new engine also includes a more robust security model, Yahoo said, with more clear outlines of how the widgets might be accessing local files or what the widget may be downloading from the Internet.
Among the companies using Yahoo's widget platform are Clearspring, Netvibes, and MuseStorm. Clearspring distributes widgets through its clients, which include NBC Universal, Maxim, and Time Magazine. MuseStorm expects to have its applications available through Universal Music Group by the end of the year. Netvibes is offering the widgets it builds to users of its service, which enables people to be their own start pages for the Web.
For Yahoo, widgets are an element of its strategy to regain some of its former glory as an Internet pioneer. The company lags behind Google in search and online advertising, and has seen its attempts at video and social networking usurped by upstarts MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, which are owned by Google.
