Google offers mini-programs for use on other sites By Eric Auchard
Google Inc. said on Tuesday it is making it easier to add hundreds of miniature programs to independent Web sites, in a move that brings handy features to users instead of making users rely on Google.com.
The Web search leader has jumped ahead of rivals -- such as Apple Computer Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. -- who offer mini-applets or "gadgets" when the user has installed special software on individual computer desktops.
Google Gadgets, which have previously been available for users to add to a Web user's personalized Google homepage or their own computers via Google Desktop software, are now available for Web page owners to add to their own sites.
"Instead of making people come to Google, now Google can be found everywhere," Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li said of the push to make such programs available via other sites.
Web site publishers can choose from a gallery of 1,220 so-called "Google Gadgets" -- small bits of code that function as dynamic applications when installed on a Web page. Less than two dozen of the applications come from Google. Most are built by outside programmers seeking distribution for the programs.
Google Gadgets range from a miniature look-up for Google Maps or Google Calendar to independent applications ranging from financial information to sports to communication tools and jokes, horoscopes or geometric puzzle game Tetris.
A list of Google Gadgets can be found at
To add a particular gadget to a Web page, users can with a few clicks locate the HTML source code of the program and insert it into their own Web sites using standard Web publishing tools.
"This is part of the movement to make the Web into a platform rather than forcing users to rely on desktop software," Li said.
Google calls these new Web-based programs "Universal Gadgets" to distinguish them from existing "Desktop Gadgets" designed to run only on Google sites or on a user's own computer desktop.
"Gadgets are nothing more than HTML and a little bit of Javascript," Adam Sah, who carries the title Google Gadgets architect, said in an interview. "Gadgets are easy to create so it's something (programmers) can do in their spare time."
Yahoo, through its acquisition of the Silicon Valley start-up Konfabulator last year, boasts more than 3,244 Widgets, or mini programs, that range from Web search tools to games, news feeds and video-watching utilities.
But users must install and run an 11-megabyte program on a PC for such programs to work on Windows-based computers
While Google has jumped out ahead of rivals, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are likely to make their own collections of mini-applications ready to run on other Web sites, Li said.
Before these mini-Web based applications can go mainstream, however, Google and the others will have to do away with the need to "cut and paste" code and make it possible to install such programs on Web sites in a few clicks, she said.
Eventually, Web users can look forward to a time when they combine such mini-applications from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft or others to create hybrid applications, known as mashups.
Start-ups like Widgetbox
"We are not ready at this point to discuss that," Google's Sah said. "Gadgets and Widgets are all moving very quickly."
Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
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