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Posted by Richard Ziade on November 6, 2006, 02:18PMWonky Over Widgets
Everybody's going wonky over widgets (or gadgets, or dashboards, or...). There's even a conference dedicated to widgets (Om Malik has a write-up on it).
We're trending away from the browser - and it's going to keep going. In my oh-so-humble opinion, there will be two players left standing when it's all said and done: Microsoft and Adobe. It's going to be fun to watch. And the designer in me is all sorts of giddy about being able to create more seamless, targeted experiences outside of the browser. I've written at length about this in the past and the time is nearing. Yippee!
Update: Speak of the devil. Techcrunch talks about SpringWidgets - yet another widget platform by Fox Interactive that actually uses Flash on both the desktop and web. Smells a lot like Apollo. It's funny how two different species of business are going at this from two different directions. The content providers (Yahoo, Google, Fox, etc.) and the software platform people (Adobe, Microsoft).
Over at the Arc90 blog, I talk further about these trends and the skills and technologies that are going to lead the way.
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Comments
Hey Rich, is Arc90 blog in MXNA, the Adobe blog aggregator? If not, why not?
Posted by: JesterXL at November 6, 2006 2:50 PMJesse - excellent question! I'll submit it through. :)
Posted by: Richard Ziade at November 6, 2006 3:07 PMRachel - I think what Adobe and Microsoft have in common - and I should've highlighted this - is that the barrier to entry is far lower for their platforms.
I'm not exactly sure how Apollo will install itself, but the more seamless the install, the more rapid the adoption. As for Microsoft - their WPF platform is ready to go out of the box with Vista.
The alternatives by Yahoo, Google & the like still have to get past that "first step" hurdle.
Posted by: Richard Ziade at November 6, 2006 3:16 PMI agree with Anne, it's all proprietary crap.
Posted by: huphtur at November 6, 2006 6:52 PMWhat's the alternative? Does anyone know of any open source iniatives for widgets/gadgets?
Posted by: Richard Ziade at November 6, 2006 7:01 PMPost a comment
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Microsoft and Adobe - huh? What am I missing here - what has either of them done to widgetfy their stuff? I see what you've written on the Arc90 blog about the languages and Flash/Flex, but don't really see how they'll be the big guys still standing when the bubble bursts... guess I'll have to scan your past posts to find out ;)
I share your love of the widgets, although I'm hugely disappointed that I didn't hear about this conference anywhere other than a blog from someone in NYC (wtf?). No publicity about it out here - unless I'm not reading the cool kids blogs...
Posted by: Rachel at November 6, 2006 2:49 PM