Google Gadgets for the Mac

New software from Google, lets you run Google gadgets as Mac OS X Dashboard widgets. It’s an interesting idea, as it sort of attempts to turn Google Desktop into a cross-platform meta platform for HTML/CSS/JavaScript *-dgets, but my first thought is that it seems needless. Looking at Google’s developer docs for writing cross-platform gadgets, it really looks lowest-common-denominator. If you’re a developer with a Google gadget that you want Mac users to run, I think it makes more sense to port it to a native widget, which will let all Mac users run it, rather than only those who’ve got Google Desktop installed.

(Speaking of cross-platform “widgets”, I don’t hear much about Yahoo Widgets (née Konfabulator) these days. Just me?)

★ Thursday, 29 November 2007