Google Gadgets

I know a few folks don’t know about Google Gagdets. Google just opened it up for everyone beyond just Google products (They’re Java-based so they’re pretty universal except for places like MySpace that don’t allow Java). There are over 1200 of these mash-ups, widgets and gadgets. They include gadgets for:
News
Tools
Communication
Fun & Games
Finance
Sports
Lifestyle
Technology
New Gadgets
These centralized widget repositories are becoming quite useful. MySpace has one coming called TheSpringBox. Another is Widgetbox.
Check it out. These are perfect for your portal strategies.
Stephen
Original Press Release:
October 3, 2006
Now You Can Have Google Gadgets on Your Webpage
Google Gadgets for your webpage can help make a site dynamic and rich with content. Google Gadgets, which have long been available for users to add to the Google homepage and Google Desktop, are now available for webpage owners to add to their own webpages.
Google Gadgets are miniature-sized objects that offer cool and dynamic content that can be placed on any page on the web. A directory of “Google Gadgets for your webpage” is now available for webpage owners everywhere to browse and select gadgets for their own pages, at http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open.
“Now anyone can have a great-looking website with automatically updating content,” said Adam Sah, Google Gadgets Architect. “By making Google Gadgets available for you to add to your webpage, we’re working to connect developers with enthusiastic consumers and to make information universally accessible and useful to the individual user.”
With almost no effort and at no cost, webpage owners can add complex, dynamically updating content to their own websites using Google Gadgets. Because there is such an enormous variety of Google Gadgets to choose from, webmasters also have a great deal of freedom to select only the gadgets that will best complement their own page. There are games, news clips, weather reports, maps, and more.
For example, let’s say you are in charge of your club soccer team’s website, and you want to add a current weather forecast so your fans can plan for your games or you want to include a daily brainteaser on your site without having to come up with something new everyday. Google Gadgets lets you do this easily. Just visit the directory of “Google Gadgets for your webpage” to find gadgets that you’d like to add to your own page and select your preferences for how the gadget will appear on your page. Then, copy and paste the HTML from the window into the HTML code for your own website. It’s an easy way to get the content you need and want without spending hours writing code!
For developers of universal gadgets, Google’s making the gadgets available to webpage owners everywhere presents an opportunity for a much larger audience than ever before. We’re always looking for great new gadgets so check out http://code.google.com/apis/gadgets/ to learn more about creating them.