RSSYahoo Buys Konfabulator Widget App
By Ed Oswald | Published July 25, 2005, 12:42 PM
Yahoo confirmed that it has bought Konfabulator, a popular software application that provides a platform for small "widgets" that show news headlines, weather data, and stock information among other things on a user's desktop. The program is available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Konfabulator was first introduced in 2002 and quickly gained a small cult following for its ease of use. Apple liked the idea and included a similar application, called Dashboard, in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Pixoria, the company behind Konfabulator, later introduced a version of the software for the Windows operating system.
The creators of the application -- Arlo Rose, Ed Voas, and Perry Clarke -- said in a statement on the Konfabulator Web site that they saw the merger as nothing but positive.
"When we first thought of Konfabulator, one of the key pieces was accessing internet content. Well guess what Yahoo has boatloads of?" the group said. "So really, depending on how you look at it, we're taking over Yahoo! We're going to make it so the best way to access their data is via slick little Widgets."
Konfabulator will likely garner a much larger audience under Yahoo's umbrella. With over 181 million registered users, Yahoo is one of the largest destinations on the Web. The widgets would allow these users to obtain information from the Yahoo Web site without having to launch a Web browser.
Whereas Pixoria charged $20 USD for Konfabulator, Yahoo intends to give the new version -- to be renamed Yahoo! Widgets -- away for free. Anyone who has purchased the software since May would be eligible for a refund.
"We're excited. You should be too," the group wrote. "We're in good hands at Yahoo, I mean, they acquired Flickr, right? How bad can they be?"
Konfabulators widgets cannot be exported. They require Konfabulator to run. DesktopX is still the way to go.
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|I just wish it was Google. Google Browser, Google Widgets. Google is better with the little things that make Internet Surfing fun.
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|Anyone know if Konfabulator's widgets can be exported as executables (like DesktopX), or do they always need the runtime?
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|Yeahh..I like the idea behind this buy out of Yahoo!!!!
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|Gooooogle is gooooooing to buy Stardock / WindowBlinds?
maybe even buying an anti-virus / spyware co?
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|This is awesome. I never knew about Konfabulator until now.
Yahoo! rocks. I hope they kick Google's butt.
Google is Evil.
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|well look who the noob is :P
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|Agreed. Whether he wants to believe it or not Google is supreme over Yahoo! ;)
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|Awesome. Very happy about this acquisition. =) Congrats to the Konfab team.
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|i hope/predict Google will release a "Google OS" based on KDE!!!
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|Nah, if they did release a "GoogleOS" i think they would make their own GUI system, at least I hope they would.
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|maybe even buying Linspire..
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|Free sounds good. Yahoo could turn it into a even better app.
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|bulls***, prolly just stuff there bulls*** messenger in it
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|Let's take a poll-- no, better yet: bets!
Which illustrious member's rationale is most logic-- Pipewrench or Funcheung?
Methinks the latter's... why i wouldn't even bet Pipe's own money against Google...like betting against tiger, lance, annika, warren buffet, etc. if they go down, then i know absolutely nothing about computers, the earth is flat, my wife is really a man....
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|how about neither
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|Let's all just go back to AOL and use keywords and all that crap to search for such wonderful things like "Good Morning America" and "People" or whatever else that junk was. Too long ago.
heh.
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|now I know this app has been around a while and apple has this in its tiger os and maybe before that sorry not very knowledgeable in the apple os...anyways...spyware, adware, virus etc etc are big problems with windows and out of curiousity would itbe possible to make widgets look authenicate looking and actually be something else? causing spyware, adware or a virus? just curious really...pardon me if this makes me sound like I am stupid just curious if something like this is likely
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