Two commonly referred-to types of widgets are the Yahoo! Widgets and the Dashboard widgets of Apple Macintosh computer users (Microsoft refers to them as Gadgets both in Windows Vista and the Windows Live system.). KlipFolio refers to them as Klips, and Google Desktop refers to them as either panels or gadgets.

Widgets, in this case, are downloadable interactive virtual tools that provide services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather, a dictionary, a map program, sticky notes, or even a language translator, among other things.

A desktop widget typically provides easy access to frequently used functions or provides some visual information. via wikipedia - widget engine

Google says about their Desktop 5:

We are happy to be releasing the Google Desktop 5 application in 29 languages, including our first release in Hindi. It's now easier than ever for people around the world to find content on their computer as well as on the web. We've redesigned the look and feel of the sidebar and many of our most popular gadgets. There are also previews for search results and warnings for suspicious websites, whether you're clicking on links from documents, IMs, websites, and more...

via googleblog.blogspot.com | tags: google desktop5 widget competition desktop widgets gadgets yahoo widgets microsoft live

Labels: gadgets, google, microsoft, utilities