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Konfabulator Now Yahoo Widget Engine

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

December 12, 2005, 10:00 AM

The first new version of Konfabulator since its July 2005 acquisition by Yahoo was released on Monday. However, the application has a new name, Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0, and now includes contributions from the Yahoo! Developer Network.

Nine new widgets were also released today, including five that take advantage of various Yahoo services.

A map widget allows users to search for addresses and view maps, and an update to the picture frame widget now supports Yahoo! Photos and Flickr join a Yahoo! Search widget, a Yahoo! Mail widget, and a Yahoo! Notepad widget that can sync with the company's online notepad application.

Yahoo says that since the acquisition, Konfabulator has been downloaded 1.5 million times, with users downloading over 10 million widgets to date.

"Yahoo! Widgets allow consumers to always have the information and content they want close at hand and is just one example of the ways we're able to make Yahoo!'s services and content available to users when, where and how they want," Jerrell Jimerson, vice president of Connected Life products at Yahoo, said in a statement.

Widgets are small applications that can be loaded directly onto the desktop to perform basic functions without the need to open a full application. Apple integrated the feature into Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, but its widgets reside on a separate desktop layer.

About 2,000 widgets are available for Yahoo! Widget Engine, the company said.

Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0 is available to download now for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Add a Comment (13 Comments)

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By ServerMechanic

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 9:37 AM

Ok, after installing and using it for a day I see that Yahoo! has ruined this application.

-Konfabulator (Yahoo whatever engine) doesn't autostart with my PC anymore.

-When I launch the weather widget it has forgotten all my settings and my city.

-It doesn't keep the same place on the screen like I told it to.

I'm going back to Konfabulator 2.0. Screw Yahoo!

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Dec 15, 2005 - 12:25 AM

I noticed that too. It seemed to forget all of my settings after a restart. However, it only forgot once, and I haven't had the problem since.

Score: 0

By Mandeep

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 3:17 AM

Konfabulator in addition with RocketDock and WindowBlinds v5 gives Windows the ultimate look IMO.

Score: 0

By wincement

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 2:00 PM

Nice. I never tried konfabulator before, but these are nice.

They've got useful information and don't look bad either.

Score: 0

By heat_fan1

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 11:39 AM

Like NoBeer said, it looks great, it's a cool thing to have, but it's not necessary. Yes, it is a nice central place for everything, but unless you have the system space for it (as I'm sure most people on here do), it's mostly only a resource user.

However...I do like it! I think it's really great, and it's only gotten better since Yahoo! took over, integrating the many Yahoo! services.

Score: 0

By No Beer For You

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 11:26 AM

I didn't like konfabulator. I tried it when I heard Yahoo took it over.

It was nothing special.
It didn't have anything I wanted. Already got a clock in my taskbar, shutdown button too.
Weather in my browser.
Don't think there's anything else I need that it has...

That name has just gotten worse too.
Konfabulator was just hard to type and spell.
Yahoo! Widget Engine is just too long. Whats wrong with "Yahoo! Widgets"?
Just my 2 cents :)

Score: 0

By JacenSolo

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 11:08 AM

I've used Konfabulator a few times, but never really given it a good run. Now that Yahoo's taken it (my fav online portal :P), I think I'll try it out again.