What is a Desktop Widget and why is it Helpful and – Harmful to Your Computer System (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this post, I discussed about desktop widgets, how to choose good ones and avoid harmful ones. This time around, I will cover high-level topics on widgets which will help you better enhance your knowledge of its usage both at work and in business.
Ready? Let’s continue by again defining some terminologies, courtesy of Wikipedia.
“A widget engine is the software platform on which desktop or web engines run.”
“Widget management systems offer a method of managing widgets that works on any web page, such as a blog or social networking home page. Many blog systems come with built-in widget management systems as plug-ins. Users can obtain widgets and other widget management tools from various widget companies.”
Widget Engine
One of the most popular Widget Engine is the Yahoo Widget Engine. It is a widget engine that runs on desktop. It is a freeware and once deployed, you can run, download, personalized and enjoy desktop widgets on a single app. Yahoo calls it the “dock”, a window where widgets are collectively displayed and represented by icons. Then there’s the HUD (Heads-Up Display) that let’s you display all open widgets on your desktop at the press of the hotkey which you set.
While Yahoo already discontinued Yahoo Widget Engine in 2012, you can still download this app from a few app stores and use it with full functionality, except of course that there’s no more support from Yahoo.
How does the engine work?
The Application Programming Interface (API) does the basic thing of making it work as an app on your Windows and Mac OS desktops. It pulls out widgets from the web, compiled them on the widget engine, and then makes those widgets run on your OS. Developers who love creating widgets feed the engine with widgets, upon registration with Yahoo. You, as the widget user, can opt to log-in your Yahoo account to access some of the widget’s features.
And by the way, Windows Gadgets and Dashboard Widgets are both widget engines for desktop.
Widget Management Systems (WMS)
Widget engine, as defined, not only works for desktop widgets, but also for web widgets.
Let’s explore more on that.
The “like”, “+1” and “tweet” buttons are the most popular web widgets. How so? It’s because these web widgets are used on internet marketing. Gee! You can see a lot of them on almost every web site and blog site today.
Speaking of blog site, let’s bring WordPress (WP) in. If you have passion for blogging and hypes on SEO marketing, you’re definitely familiar with “plug-ins” in CMS platforms. These are stuffs that bring those widgets (and features like search box, media player or email client) around your site.
One of the popular plug-ins is the Widget Manager for WordPress.
The key role of this WP plug-in is for the WordPress webmaster to gain full control over layouts, page content, sidebars and widgets. For theme authors and developers, including this plug-in on your themes can definitely make a lot of difference on your users’ interactive experience.
Let’s wrap this up.
I’ve been blogging via Blogger and WP for years and I really find widget managers helpful. I’m still using Windows 7 and I’m running RSS Feeds using Windows Gadgets.
Choosing which desktop widget or web widget to use is always a matter of choice. Moreover, practical use of Widget Engines and Widget Management Systems can make a lot of sense; it makes widget helpful – and not harmful.
