The Plurk team has released a new widget customizable widget that can be placed on your blog, personal website, or forehead. Ok, maybe not the last one.
The blog entry also points out that another widget will soon be released that will allow you to add your Plurks to MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks.
I’ve already posted this over at TechRelated.com and OverclockersClub.com, so most of you have probably already seen this bit of “news”. 
Opera 9.0 has officially been released. More speed, more power, BitTorrent, widgets, and a lot of other improvements. What’s not to love about Opera? 
As always, Daniel Goldman of Opera Watch has some exclusive news related to the Opera Web Browser.
This big news is, Opera 9.0 will add:
I’m really interested to see what exactly will be included in this “widget support”.
Was reading through the news this morning and came across the latest story on Opera Watch where Daniel was commenting on this PCWorld article.
According to the PCWorld article Opera 9.0 will support widgets. If this is true, we haven’t seen it in the latest technical preview (pre-beta version). Anyway, here is a snip from the PCWorld article:
Although we were unable to test these features, the company says the final version will include support for widgets, small external programs that use Opera’s engine and can run on the desktop.
Now, I don’t know if this is true or not, but it could be very cool if implemented correctly. It does make some since for Opera to do something like this. After all, Opera is more than just a browser it is an internet suite, and since most widgets (but not all) retrieve data and information from the internet, well you get the point.
Unfortunately Daniel from Opera Watch wasn’t able to get much information from Opera Software.
It looks like everyone is getting into the gadget business these days. And WinCustomize rambled a bit about it…. now it’s my turn.
Widgets and gadgets (personally, I think of them all as just plug-ins) have been around for years. Companies like Konfibulator (now owned by Yahoo!), Apple Computers, Stardock, and KlipFolio were probably some of the first to mainstream them. I don’t know for sure who started the widget war, but IIRC it was done first on a Mac OS (Was it apple or a 3rd party?).
When Google released Desktop Search 2.0 a few months back it included a new sidebar, which people could write “plug-ins” to attach to it for various things. A clock, AdSense monitor, a to-do list, system stats, whatever. The options are limitless.
Those of you who have been following Windows Vista know that it too includes a “sidebar”. Microsoft announced the other day that users will be able to create “gadgets” to extend the sidebar, more information is available at MicrosoftGadgets.com.
Before Microsoft and Google, Stardock had DesktopX, which allowed users to create various gadgets. The nice thing about DesktopX is the gadgets aren’t limited to just being placed into a bar on the side of the screen, they can be placed out on the desktop.
Like DesktopX, there are other gadget systems out there that can be placed on the desktop and extended to do whatever. Samurize, Kapsules, and Konfabulator are some others. I’m suprised Google and Microsoft have chosen to limit things to just a sidebar.
Like Microsoft, Stardock has launched a “gadget site”. Stardock’s site is DesktopGadgets.com, and like they say it can be expanded to include Microsoft’s Windows Gadgets as well. Personally, I’d like to see it expand and include gadgets, widgets, or whatever you call them from the many other companies as well. Including gadgets for other OSs (Linux, BSD, and Mac), now that would be a kick ass site.
