Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Google has released Google Universal Gadgets, which also known as Google Modules, Google Widgets or Homepage Contents to the general public for use on personal websites and blogs. Google Gadgets are mini applications, sometimes called applets or widgets that perform specific tasks or provide information or as a games. Previously, most of the applets have been restricted for usage on the desktop (Desktop Gadget), Google Desktop, Google Pages, and Google Personalized Homepage (Universal Gadget). Elsewhere at Yahoo! and Microsoft, the gadgets or widgets are also only available for desktop or specific Yahoo! or Microsoft related customized pages.

Google now has a gallery of more than 1220 Google Universal Gadgets, which contains minimal code that function as dynamic applications when installed on a website or blog, with a variety of abilities. Among the functionalities of the gadgets include check weather, get news headlines, play games, miniature look-up for Google Maps or Google Calendar, search tool for Wikipedia or Dictionary.com, download smileys, translate with Babelfish and etc.