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Yahoo Updates Konfabulator 216

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the pathName-cget-widget-story dept.
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.'"
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Yahoo Updates Konfabulator More

Yahoo Updates Konfabulator

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  • Please spell the name correctly (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12, 2005 @10:34PM (#14243688)
    It's Yahoo! with the !.

    Thank! You!
    The! Yahoo! Branding! Team!

  • Interesting (Score:2, Insightful)

    by pHatidic ( 163975 )
    If I already use OS X, can konfabulator do anything for me? It seems like there should be some sort of universal language for crafting these widgets now that they are getting very popular.

    Several prominent Slashdot users accused of being pedophiles by Perverted-Justice [perverted-justice.com]

    • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jozer99 ( 693146 )
      Widgets for Konfabulator are a lot easier to make. This encourages a lot more community than the Apple widgets. However, since they are easier to make, you also see quite a few buggy widgets (although there are by no means a shortage of good widgets). You might as well give it a try, see if there are widgets out there that you like better than the apple ones.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • its 1996 again ! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12, 2005 @10:39PM (#14243717)

    hurrah for Active Desktop !
    lets party
    • Active desktop did this? I had not seen any Active Desktop app that did what Konfabulator has done.
      • Dashboard actually makes for a better comparison with Active Desktop. In both cases, you're essentially running a web browser with no chrome and enhanced access to the operating system. The major difference (in my mind) is that Dashboard allows transparent backgrounds, while Active Desktop does not (plus the obvious IE-only features, like ActiveX).
  • I'm afraid to install it. Is it worth it? It looks like it's loaded with the typical Yahoo! superflous-ware.
    • This is one of those programs that you've gotta download to decide if you like it. I think it's good looking, and I like having a calendar and notepad on my desktop. I also like that you can change the "widgets." ie--the "slide show" had options for how long to show each slide, but I use it to show my syllabi so I know my homework and I didn't want it to change. So I got the "Widget converter" and added a "change slides never" option to the preferences menu (which now changes the slides ever zero second

    • Re:Afraid to install.. (Score:3, Informative)

      by instarx ( 615765 )
      I'm afraid to install it. Is it worth it? It looks like it's loaded with the typical Yahoo! superflous-ware.

      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
  • Yahoo! bought Konfabulator? Neither company means much these days, so I haven't really been following.

    ---gralem

  • Microsoft's take (Score:5, Informative)

    by teslatug ( 543527 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @10:48PM (#14243770)
    Microsoft is also dabbling in widget's, or as they call them gadgets [microsoftgadgets.com]. There is a long video interview [msdn.com] about the "gadgets" and their version of Dashboard [apple.com].
  • From Spatially Adjusted [spatiallyadjusted.com]: The new updated Yahoo! Maps Widget works well on my computer and it is very simple to use (just type your search string in the box and hit enter). You can download it from their new site [yahoo.com].

  • How do you uninstall it? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stankulp ( 69949 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @10:55PM (#14243799) Homepage
    I hate it and can't get it to go away.

    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.
    • There is no "uninstall" in the program group, and it does not show up in Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs.
      Not to be a killjoy (which is curiously indistinct from being a BillJoy), but did you look under "Yahoo! Widget Engine"? It's in my Add/Remove progams in Windows XP, and it comes out just fine. (Although in my case, it went right back in, because I like the memory/CPU utilization widgets - it's like GKrellM, but pretty!)
    • You mean you don't have any interest in "Toxicant Radio Song Status" widget? You must hate America you techno-hippie! How dare you actually think for yourself you selfish commie-terrorist-in-the-making.

      Have a blessed day!

  • By Google widgets, did you mean the Google Desktop thingy [google.com]? If there's another set of widgets, I wouldn't mind a link from somebody. Thanks.

  • Requirements... (Score:5, Funny)

    by 3770 ( 560838 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @10:55PM (#14243803) Homepage
    I love the requirements they list (especially note the last one):

            * 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.
    • It uses lots of resources, especially RAM. Each widget uses between 5mb and 40mb of RAM (the 40MB ones are mostly the horrible yahoo made ones).
      • Hmm. I'm running Picture Frame, Maps, Search, Weather, and Stock Ticker and they have between 3 to 9 megs each. What widget is using 40?

        But, I agree that 40 megabytes total is still more than I'll probably want to spare.
        • Leave your comp on for a couple of hours, and weather will use 38mb. I use WinXP MCE 2005 SP2 with a P4, pretty common stuff.
          • About the same settings for me and I've had all my Widgets running since this morning. Though with all the variables Windows XP introduced, I'm not surprised people have different memory experiences.
  • I love Dashboard and use the Google Maps widget all the time. Of course, having a Dashboard layer to me defeats the purpose of the widgets, so I altered the Dashboard preferences to enable widgets on the desktop. [macrumors.com]

    I have never used Konfabulator but from the looks of the things Dashboard looks like a Konfabulator ripoff. Are the widgets interchangeable?
  • I installed it. Maybe I'm just missing it, but the last version of Konfabulator is basically 99.9% the same as this. The tag line for this release should be:

    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.

  • Pretty disgusting (Score:5, Informative)

    by wyldeone ( 785673 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @11:07PM (#14243840) Homepage Journal
    Don't know if this is standard procedure, but I was pretty annoyed when, while installing the new version, there were no less then three attempts to integrate yahoo into my computer. Can't these portals release software without trying to take over your computer?
    • Can't these portals release software without trying to take over your computer?

      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)

    by noisyfont ( 919296 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @11:12PM (#14243859)
    Widget could be useful... maybe. But before we they can even there, they need to integrate better with the rest of the "user experience". I am using Dashboard (I tried konfab for the kicks, but they seemed pretty much equivalent), and the widget don't behave like the rest of the OS. I can't copy past in all of them (can't copy from bloody dictionnary!), most of them don't have preferences I can adjust to fit my needs and they only the most limited fonctionnality for any operation (calculator app. is pretty dumb but it shines when compared to the widget conterpart).

      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).
     
    • I am being overly harsh here, but you get my point

      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

    • You might need to find a widget that's useful to you is all .. I use the word clocks all the time just because my family is scattered about the globe (got 6 in a row at the press of F12)and I need to know when is good/bad time to call them.
      Also find the flight tracker useful (cause I travel), and the calcutor (cause my math sucks :-)
  • Seriously, I think that Yahoo is making a step further here.

    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)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @11:20PM (#14243894) Homepage
    I'll stick with the real deal.

    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.

  • I tried it a year or so back... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kadathseeker ( 937789 ) on Monday December 12, 2005 @11:35PM (#14243948) Homepage
    It was pretty cool for about two weeks, but once the appeal of the the cutesy gamey widgets wear out (or take up too much screen space), there are few that offer any real utility that isn't matched elsewhere more easily. A well-equipped Firefox can easily replace most of the widgets (ex. Forcastfox, Foxytunes, etc.). And really, who needs half a dozen portal widgets? Leave Firefox open and in two clicks you can select a different search function, then search away wherever (though certainly not torrentspy.com cough cough cough).

  • 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.

  • I rather like the way it asks before running a new widget for the first time. That can help keep it from becoming another way that malware can run.

  • Stupid name change and they broke support (Score:3, Informative)

    by wobedraggled ( 549225 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @12:29AM (#14244163) Homepage
    No longer works in Windows XP X64 due to WinHTTP library. Way to go Yahoo!

  • Any good exploits yet? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Tuesday December 13, 2005 @02:32AM (#14244664) Homepage
    New big piece of closed-source code! Executes wide range of commands from web pages! Good potential for yummy exploits! Anybody find one yet? Can you write a worm in it?

    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?

  • The reason I uninstalled Konfabulator was because of the HUGE amount of memory widgets required (5-20 MB per widget) plus unreasonable processor demands. The new Yahoo version doesn't fix this.
  • Now, while Google Dashboard plugins can be called 'widgets', what was the point of including that sentence at the end? Yes, I see it was a quote from the original article, and it's just as oddly placed there, but it is even more odd here.

    "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.
    • It's probably to stop the 40,000 anti-Google trolls screaming "in your FACE! Google! Yahoo has feature X and feature Y!", to save us sensible (though not neccessarily Google-loving) people from having to reply to each one pointing out that, in fact, Google does this too. And those with mod points from having to mod them both down to -1, Troll or -1, Offtopic.

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