February 22, 2007 at 17:30Netvibes Widgets Will Become Cross-Platform
Web widgets and desktop widgets are small software modules, mini-applications that receive information via the Internet and are designed to be embedded on a web page or on the computer desktop. The main idea of widgets is cross-platform. It is assumed that the same widget can be installed on any computer under any operating system. In practice, developers experience enormous difficulties due to incompatibility of desktop widget engines (Vista, Mac, Google, Yahoo), as well as numerous widget platforms for the web (Pageflakes, Netvibes, and many others). This is really a big problem, especially considering the importance of technology for the development of the web.
W3C Consortium Already Develops Widget 1.0 Draft Specifications, if adopted, at least minimal widget compatibility will appear.
Another step towards widget standardization took place yesterday at the Future of Web Applications Conference in London, where Tariq Krim, founder of Netvibes , spoke . He announced that very soon they will release universal programming interfaces for the Universal Widget API widgets (codenamed Coriander), which will ensure that branded widgets are fully compatible with any platform. “Any widget created for Netvibes will also work on Vista, Google, Mac and Opera,” saidTarik Krim. Support for Yahoo Widgets and other platforms will appear a bit later. Thanks to open source, third-party developers can add support for others to the Universal Widget API. Less common platforms.
Porting a widget to another platform is done using one built-in script. It recognizes the platform and launches an adapted version of the widget. Thus, it will be much easier for sites to distribute their widgets: a single code will be suitable for most platforms.
The screenshots below show how Netvibes widgets run on the Mac and on Google.
W3C Consortium Already Develops Widget 1.0 Draft Specifications, if adopted, at least minimal widget compatibility will appear.
Another step towards widget standardization took place yesterday at the Future of Web Applications Conference in London, where Tariq Krim, founder of Netvibes , spoke . He announced that very soon they will release universal programming interfaces for the Universal Widget API widgets (codenamed Coriander), which will ensure that branded widgets are fully compatible with any platform. “Any widget created for Netvibes will also work on Vista, Google, Mac and Opera,” saidTarik Krim. Support for Yahoo Widgets and other platforms will appear a bit later. Thanks to open source, third-party developers can add support for others to the Universal Widget API. Less common platforms.
Porting a widget to another platform is done using one built-in script. It recognizes the platform and launches an adapted version of the widget. Thus, it will be much easier for sites to distribute their widgets: a single code will be suitable for most platforms.
The screenshots below show how Netvibes widgets run on the Mac and on Google.
