"Do you Widget?" If not, you've yet to discover the way to check the weather, news, and sports scores (Go Rockies!) without opening a single Web browser! If you wanted, you could also launch useful apps, calculate your heart away, see how hard your computer is working, time everything you do, change the volume, make notes, search everything from the Web to YouTube, and even have a spirited bout of Tetris!
Basically, widgets are nano-programs. Widgets are everywhere, from my blog to Netvibes (the best personalized home page creator yet!), to your Desktop (Windows, Mac, and even Linux!) This post talks about desktop widgets, not Web widgets like those on Netvibes or blogs.
I get my fill of widgets by using Google Desktop. This uber-desktop search engine comes with a sidebar, yours to fill with widgets. You can also drag widgets onto the Desktop. Other good widget engines: Yahoo! Widgets (Instead of a sidebar, you get to fill a HUD of widgets. However, these widgets have to appear in the HUD and on the desktop.), Dashboard (My favorite widget engine, where widgets display only on a HUD invoked by a hotkey. Unfortunately for me, Dashboard is a Mac-only program.). If you want more substantial widgets, that threaten to become full-fledged programs (or even replacements to Windows' shell!
), try notorious Windows-customizer Stardock's DesktopX.Try one of these widget engines, and sound off about them in the comments to this post. Good luck and happy widgeting!
Images from:
http://macapper.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/icon.png
http://www.macupdate.com/images/icons/10859.png
http://www.morrisonfilm.com/journalpics/dashboard-icon.jpg
http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs6/f/2005/076/1/b/DesktopX3d_01.png
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