Yahoo Updates Konfabulator 216
An anonymous reader writes "InformationWeek is reporting that Yahoo! has released a new version of Konfabulator, now rechristened 'Yahoo Widget Engine'. From the article: 'Widgets are useful to portals because they can draw users to their services directly from the desktop, without first having to launch a browser. By providing a more direct route, portals are trying to increase the use of their services, which are tied to online advertising. Yahoo rival search engine Google Inc. also offers widgets.'"
Please spell the name correctly (Score:4, Funny)
Thank! You!
The! Yahoo! Branding! Team!
Re:Please spell the name correctly (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Please spell the name correctly (Score:2)
Re:Please spell the name correctly (Score:2)
Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)
Several prominent Slashdot users accused of being pedophiles by Perverted-Justice [perverted-justice.com]
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Interesting (Score:2)
I'm not a *real* Mac user (basically just wanted a Unixy laptop) but to me Dashboard was an interesting idea that was poorly implemented. It's a memory hog and isn't practical to use. I haven't disabled it yet but reading your post I notice that I haven't activated it for at least a month.
I guess it's gotta go...
Re: (Score:2)
its 1996 again ! (Score:5, Funny)
hurrah for Active Desktop !
lets party
Re:its 1996 again ! (Score:2)
Re:its 1996 again ! (Score:2)
Afraid to install.. (Score:2)
Re:Afraid to install.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Afraid to install.. (Score:3, Informative)
I installed it because I got a message saying there was another "Konfabulator update" to my current version. I let out a small groan when I saw it had morphed into Yahoo! Widgets but so far except for seeing the Yahoo! name too may times during the install, Yahoo! is leaving me alone. Install screens now look more Corporate and less homespun Konfabulator-like but so far all my widgets still work and
News to me... (Score:2)
---gralem
Re:News to me... (Score:3, Informative)
Partnered with Six Apart to pre-install Movable Type on their small business hosting [techcrunch.com]
Purchased Del.icio.us [techcrunch.com]
Launched Yahoo Answers [yahoo.com]
Launched Yahoo Shoposphere [yahoo.com]
Launched a new version of Yahoo Maps [yahoo.com]
Launched Yahoo Blog Search [yahoo.com]
Launched Yahoo Podcasts [yahoo.com]
Purchased Konfabulator [techcrunch.com]
Launched Yahoo My Web 2.0 [yahoo.com]
Purchased Flickr.com [flickr.com]
Yahoo will also soon be launching a new version of Yahoo Ma
Re:News to me... (Score:2)
I have been one of the google "cheerleaders" for a while now... but within the last few months I have:
A. Signed Up for a Flickr account (and paid for a Pro account)... and uploaded over 1000 pictures
B. Started Using Del.icio.us religiously
C. Registered 3 Domains using Yahoo (they have a good price, I trust them, I like their interface for managing domains).
D. Started a Yahoo fantasy football league.
A couple of things I can't give up from Google:
A. Searching - Google really is better
B.
Microsoft's take (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Microsoft's take (Score:2)
(And yes I know I'm a hypocrite)
Re:Microsoft's take (Score:2)
1984. (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft's take (Score:2)
Oh wait, that didn't happen. You just make it sound like Microsoft perfected the idea of browsers.
Re:Microsoft's take (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft's take (Score:2)
Yahoo! Maps also gets an updated widget (Score:2)
How do you uninstall it? (Score:5, Interesting)
There is no "uninstall" in the program group, and it does not show up in Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.
I just want it to go away.
Re:How do you uninstall it? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How do you uninstall it? (Score:2)
Have a blessed day!
google widgets. .. where ? (Score:2)
Requirements... (Score:5, Funny)
* Windows XP with Service Pack 1 installed or Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3 installed, or newer, or Mac OS X 10.3 or newer.
* A connection to the Internet.
* 512 megabytes of RAM is recommended.
* Lots of spare time.
Re:Requirements... (Score:2)
Re:Requirements... (Score:2)
But, I agree that 40 megabytes total is still more than I'll probably want to spare.
Re:Requirements... (Score:2)
Re:Requirements... (Score:2)
I love Dashboard, would I love Konfabulator? (Score:2)
I have never used Konfabulator but from the looks of the things Dashboard looks like a Konfabulator ripoff. Are the widgets interchangeable?
Re:I love Dashboard, would I love Konfabulator? (Score:2)
If you're going to paint it like someone ripped off someone else, then it's Konfab that ripped off Apple's Desktop Accessories, which were developed 21 years before Konfabulator [folklore.org].
Re:I love Dashboard, would I love Konfabulator? (Score:2)
Konfabulator - much better designed widgets in that the shape of the widget conveys information (the weather widget has a big cloud when raining, moon at night etc. However, it seems to be a VERY inefficient javascript engine as it seem to consume huge amounts of CPU to do very simple things. I also prefer the widgets to sit on the desktop and appear at the touch of a button.
Dashboard - so far much poorer widget design, the vast majority are just squa
New! Now with Global Brand Awareness! (Score:2, Informative)
All New! Now with Global Brand Awarness!
It seems like they walked into the Yahoo Marketing department and said "OK, Release a new version of Konfabulator. No, you don't need programmers."
There *are* some new Yahoo widgets but that's not news. Widgets are created every day.
Yawn.
Re:New! Now with Global Brand Awareness! (Score:2)
Re:New! Now with Global Brand Awareness! (Score:2)
Here's the changelog: http://widgets.yahoo.com/versionhistory/ [yahoo.com]
and just in case...
Version 3.0
Widget Changes
Day Planner (formerly known as PIM Overview)
* Added the ability to access and edit your Yahoo! Calendar data.
* Addresses lingering daylight saving time issues in both Widget and Engine COM interface to Outlook.
Yahoo! Weather (formerly known as The W
Re:New! Now with Global Brand Awareness! (Score:2)
Pretty disgusting (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Pretty disgusting (Score:2)
Certainly not! Resistance is futile. Your computer will be assimilated. You will learn to welcome your new Yahoo! overlords and trust the computer.
So far, I still can't find a reason to use widgets (Score:5, Insightful)
I know these are free, simple coding projects, but come on! They have to behave like a proper app. for them to enhance my productivity. As far as I am concerned, widget are just a "proof of concept" for the moment. I am still waiting for a widget that does more tham show me where the sun is and isn't shinning (I am being overly harsh here, but you get my point).
Re:So far, I still can't find a reason to use widg (Score:2, Insightful)
No, your not being overly harsh. I spent (wasted) 2 days playing with them and arrived at basically the same conclusion.
At first they seemed like an easy way to write a small app that could be distributed easy (no windows install etc) and they looked cool, but that was just laziness on my part. If I recall they didn't seem to have much in the way of capabilities or at least nothing I couldn't do with a browser, except clutter up my desktop w/ admittably
Re:So far, I still can't find a reason to use widg (Score:2, Informative)
Also find the flight tracker useful (cause I travel), and the calcutor (cause my math sucks
Me likey! (Score:2)
I like the idea of information at your finger tips.
Can google top it off.
In other news: Yahoo aspires to be like OS X. (Score:3, Insightful)
Yahoo lost me back when they got cocky and started shoveling crap down my throat on their search page.
ICQ was also notorious for the same thing. They were just a little too ambitious for my tastes. I wanted a product, not a marketing blitz. Wow, they've even toned it down [icq.com] significantly. Now all the products are neatly categories within their product search engine.
Simplicity is a good. Forcefeeding is bad.
Re:In other news: Yahoo aspires to be like OS X. (Score:2, Informative)
I assume of course that you know Konfabulator was released before OS X dashboard.
Having using both i prefer Konfabulator, thought that is of course a matter of preference.
Yahoo aspires to be like OSX "?? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:In other news: Yahoo aspires to be like OS X. (Score:2)
That said, I don't think renaming it to "Widget Engine" does justice to its history, I don't think it makes sen
Re:In other news: Yahoo aspires to be like OS X. (Score:2)
http://search.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com] This search page do you mean? What exactly are they trying to shove down your throat there? http://www.google.com/ [google.com] Compare. The only added thing is some news.
Unless of course you are talking about Yahoo's main website, http://www.yahoo.com/ [yahoo.com] in which case I would say Yahoo! is not primarily a search engine company like Google, but an Internet Portal, so they are supposed to shov
Re:In other news: Yahoo aspires to be like OS X. (Score:2)
Now could someone please tell me how in the hell you make a proper link on Slashdot? Are you able to do the normal HTML way? (blahblah [slashdot.org])
I tried it a year or so back... (Score:4, Interesting)
Does this end the complaints from the developer? (Score:2, Troll)
Now that he got his payday does this mean we don't get to read about his "being wronged by Apple?" I hope so. The developer and his cohorts whining about being wronged and then being proven wrong by Apple prior art was getting real old.
Note: I'd use harsher language to describe his whining but it just goes to show that the squeaky wheel eventually gets the grease: thanks Yahoo! Hopefully we won't need to read another 50 articles on this crap.
It has a new security feature (Score:2, Informative)
Stupid name change and they broke support (Score:3, Informative)
Any good exploits yet? (Score:3, Insightful)
I like the place in the documentation where it says that they're going to add more sandboxing "later". Before, or after, the first big exploit?
resources (Score:2)
Google Inc also offers widgets?! (Score:4, Insightful)
"Microsoft releases Windows Vista. Microsoft rival Apple also offers an OS."
"Honda releases new Civic Hybrid. Honda rival Toyota also offers a hybrid."
"Devil offers Eve an Apple. Devil rival God also offers knowledge."
I mean, really. Did the reporter just HAVE to find a way to include Google in this story? Maybe a bit of commentary "Yahoo rival Google offers Widgets through their more extensible Google Dashboard" or something, but just 'Google too!' is a bit odd.
Re:Google Inc also offers widgets?! (Score:2)
Re:OK, so? (Score:5, Informative)
No. There are new widgets, updates to existing widgets, and engine changes. Read the version history [yahoo.com] for more details.
Re:OK, so? (Score:2)
Re:OK, so? (Score:5, Informative)
Well, no. But first of all... Google has widgets?
There's been a lot of widget-developer-friendly changes. See the version history [yahoo.com] for all of the 3.0 pages. The biggest change has been the introduction of a substantial number of Yahoo! related widgets. More than a few people have basically said Konfabulator/Widget Engine sold out to Yahoo, but to be honest, they're slick, useful widgets if you're the sort that depends on them.
The changes mostly have to do with an increase of speed (built-in XML parser), a better arrangement system involving frames (good things here, as opposed to in HTML) and a little smoother around the edges.
Re:OK, so? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes. For Google Desktop sidebar. http://desktop.google.com/plugins/ [google.com].
Re:OK, so? (Score:2, Interesting)
Widgets are little browser components that use Web technologies like HTTP for the static stuff and AJAX for the interactive stuff to present the user with information or provide small, single-use applications.
Google Desktop sidebar plug-ins aren't widgets, which is why they don't call them widgets. They call them sidebar plugins.
Re:OK, so? (Score:2)
Widgets are little browser components that use Web technologies like HTTP for the static stuff and AJAX for the interactive stuff to present the user with information or provide small, single-use applications. Widgets existed long before AJAX became a buzzword. Widgets aren't browser components, either. There are myriad Konfabulator, DeskTopX, et
Konfabulator came first! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Konfabulator came first! (Score:5, Informative)
"However" what? You're right, "one could ask," and the answer would be that Apple did, in fact, create widget-type applets first and independently [folklore.org] for consumer operating systems. The year was 1982, and they were called Desktop Ornaments (later renamed Desktop Accessories) for the new Macintosh OS. As much as I used to like it despite is enormous memory footprint, I don't think Konfabulator was a gleam in Arlo Rose's eye in 1982.
Unauthorized Google Image Widget (Score:5, Funny)
Disclaimer: I wrote ImagesForever, so I'm biased.
Re:Unauthorized Google Image Widget (Score:2)
Huh? Perl is the first language to go on all my systems here be they Windows or anything else and that dates back to the early '80's. As for curl, it's installed all over my Windows systems including within the Konfabulator directory structure. Just an observation.
Re:Unauthorized Google Image Widget (Score:2)
Re:OK, so? (Score:2)
Gee that wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that konfabulator sold out to Yahoo would it?
Re:OK, so? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:OK, so? (Score:2)
Re:OK, so? (Score:2)
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:2, Informative)
In case you didn't get the hint, Konfabulator (now YWE apparently) predates Apple Dashboard. A lot.
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:2, Interesting)
remember boys and girls! (Score:2)
I see it just fine. Thing is, the post being replied to has been moderated "troll", and I assume then that that's why you don't see it.
Remember boys and girls, for the full slashdot experience, browse at -1!
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:5, Informative)
I got your hint. The problem with your argument is that Apple's Desktop Accessories pre-date Konfabulator by 21 years [folklore.org].
If you're going to argue history, try to have your facts straight.
Correction (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Incompetence Rewarded (Score:2)
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2)
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2)
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:5, Insightful)
Deja News (Deja.com) became Google Groups.
Urchin Log Analyzer became Google Analytics [google.com] . (More on this change [marketingvox.com])
Sprinks became wholly subsumed into Google AdWords [searchnewz.com], not even as its own sub-brand.
There are nowhere near as many Googles [google.com] as there are Yahoo!s [yahoo.com], but Google's making a clear move toward matching Yahoo! as far as brands go.
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2)
On the flip side, Yahoo bought Flickr some time ago and hasn't re-branded it yet... there's just that "A Yahoo Company" logo in the corner.
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2)
What would I expect to see looking through a Keyhole? Does a Konfabulator "konfab" me? Is DejaNews where I find news that seems vaguely familiar?
Flickr is a good descriptive name and I'm glad they stuck with it.
And even though Google hasn't rebranded Picasa, they've made a bunch of changes to brand it with Google UI (like the stars). I like that Google Earth and Picasa remind me of Google Maps and Google Map
Re:Why can't Yahoo just let it be? (Score:2)
Yeah, it's terrible how they changed Flickr too.... Flickr.
Of course, that just shows how evil they are, hiding the fact that they are the ones behind Flickr now...
Fortunately, Google doesn't rebrand stuff like Google Groups, Google Earth, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, or Google Analytics....
Ohhh yeahhh..... Spyware heaven. (Score:2)
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=171008&cid = 14243840 [slashdot.org]
LOL. And you're calling me a fanboy?
Re:standalone vs. widget (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead of having to write alot of C/C++ or Java code and worry about compatibility and lots of other issues, you can just (from my understanding) follow a method the engine outlines (in this case I believe primarily XML, maybe some javascript) and create a small very specific desktop application.
Re:standalone vs. widget (Score:2)
Re:I want my konfab back (Score:2)
Re:I want my konfab back (Score:2)
It seems kind of minor, but I can see how it would make a big difference. I can't help but wonder if Yahoo should have kept the old name and just added a little "Presented
Re:Calendar (Score:2)
Re:Calendar (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why Upgrade? (Score:2)