Yahoo Widgets 4.5 offers a new platform for developers and a gallery for consumers…
“In a tech era dominated by Google, Facebook and countless hyped start-ups, one way beleaguered Yahoo! plans to stay relevant is by riding the Web widget wave…”
Yahoo Inc. on Thursday 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! has been in the desktop widget business since it acquired tiny application platform-maker Konfabulator in July 2005. But since that time, widgets (small add-on applications) have moved online and gained plenty of buzz through their use on social networks and cultivation by Facebook, MySpace and most recently, Google’s OpenSocial standardized Web application platform.
“Nearly half of all U.S. Internet visitors in June 2007 used a Web widget, according to comScore.”
“Widgets are mini-applications that live on a desktop and deliver personalized, up-to-date information to help users.”
Yahoo Widgets version 4.5 gives developers more options for building the tiny applications and, a new “Widget Gallery” for consumers, said Scott Derringer, director of product management at Yahoo.
Yahoo, however, had limited its construction tools to JavaScript and software builders can now use HTML and Flash. The latter is technology from Adobe Systems that is use to embed multimedia, such as video and audio, into Web applications.
“Flash opens the door to all sorts of rich experiences” such as streaming video and games, Derringer said. Support for HTML makes it easier for developers to pull information down from Web pages to create widgets, he said.
“HTML is easier than JavaScript,” which is typically used to create Yahoo Widgets, Derringer said. “Also, people already have assets in HTML and Flash, and they can now take them and expand them into Yahoo Widgets.”
Version 4.5 of the Konfabulator engine, 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, Yahoo said.
“We are focused primary on the desktop experience, at creating a rich, compelling consumer experience on the desktop that takes the best of the Web … and brings it down to the desktop to leverage the full power of your PC,” said Jonathan Strauss, a senior product manager at Yahoo.
It is all about building a big developer community — and of course, soaking up more eyeballs. Yahoo! is keen to embrace developer groups, including start-ups like Clearspring, MuseStorm and Netvibes, as well as independent developers who normally devote their time to big social networking platforms such as Facebook — and in the future — team Google, which includes MySpace.
“We are working with all these Web guys to get them onto our desktop platform without changing much about what they are already doing,” says Strauss. “And we are helping them promote their widgets to the public. We think Web widgets and desktop widgets are complementary.”
The goal is to see more widgets on the Yahoo! desktop widget platform, better use of those widgets and, of course, more visitors. Yahoo! has installed graphical and text ads on its widget site, but will not receive a share of revenue from widget-makers who choose to run ads within their Yahoo! Widgets.
Widgets are found all over the Web, not just on desktops. The applications are used in online social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook. Yahoo also is not alone in targeting the desktop to lure people to its services. Microsoft and Apple offer similar applications, and Google have its own platform, which it calls Google Gadgets. Services typically provided in widgets include weather forecasts, games, shopping, travel, sport scores, and stock tickers.
In addition, Yahoo has introduced a more granular security model that expands the capabilities of the widget engine. The company also has added a full DOM (Document Object Model), Derringer said. “It is a W3C [World Wide Web Consortium] — compliant DOM that makes it easier for JavaScript developers to develop widgets.”
Derringer said Yahoo already has a collection of more than 4,300 widgets — some developed by Yahoo and most by others. “We have seen a wonderful explosion in the widget space,” he said.
“The gallery now has new categorization tags aimed at allowing users to sort through the widgets more easily, a new ratings and review system and more accurate search, Yahoo said.”
But with the new version of the engine, the company expects to see developers extending existing Web widgets to the desktop, noted Derringer.
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.
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, Derringer said.
Yahoo also revamped its widget offerings for consumers. The company is making it easier for users to discover and download desktop widgets that deliver content and services from the Yahoo Widget Gallery.
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.
Yahoo also has added features for users to rate and tag widgets, and has made it easier for them to be shared. Yahoo widget fans can now share their favorites over instant messaging or e-mail or through Web sites such as del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit.
“We find people are quite passionate,” about the widgets, said Strauss.
Strauss says Yahoo!’s users download about 500,000 widgets per week from its site, and expects usage to grow with the site’s revamp. “There is no downside to us with Web widgets being so buzz-worthy right now. I only see positives.”
At the same time, Yahoo! is offering embeddable widget-building advice, expertise and marketing services to those companies that use the mini-apps as part of an advertising campaign for major brands — much like the service Facebook said in November it planned to develop.
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 is owned by Google.