What (use) is a Vista Gadget?

Most frequent Web users are familiar with the Google sidebar and Google Gadgets – even if we have not installed them then we may have seen them.

What is not immediately apparent is why these desktop tools are named thus. However, careful inspection of at the Google Desktop download page reveals that installation requires “Requires Windows Vista/XP/2000 SP3+”.

This nifty free ‘Sidebar and Gadget’ Google kit, (which offers at a glance news, weather and a swathe of other configurable features including the option for a satellite map)  is thus named for the underlying Microsoft technologies – Microsoft Windows Sidebar and Gadget Architecture - used by Google’s developers to implement them.

From a user perspective Gadgets and Sidebars (referred to in their latest manifestation under the Vista moniker) it is all about getting the maximum functionality and information in a more compact - and more importantly - quickly accessible format.

Sidebars and Gadgets bring the Web to the desktop, without the need to open Browser applications like Microsoft Internet Explorer (wait for it to open, wait for the connection, wait for the page to load etc. etc.), and without the need to make your desktop a Webpage or ‘channel’, which many users find distracting and perhaps a little dysfunctional.

The objective is closer integration of the Web and the desktop. Increased visibility and speed of access of Web based information is the key. The user can opt into opening a browser connection if they so desire, in response to succinctly presented information in the Sidebar/Gadget. Otherwise, the Sidebar sits reduced on the desktop, quietly and unobtrusively ticking away.

This has obvious advantages for the Web-marketer/Website advertiser. The distance between a commercial brand or a not-for-profit internet ‘activists’ home page is shortened by several clicks and several moments of waiting for browsers and pages to load. What’s more, the brand, slogan or logo stays right there on the desktop all the time.

However, it is the new power of information configuration and access for the user that is perhaps most exciting. Many gadgets available on the marketplace are little more than dead weight for one’s pocket – but the new Windows Vista Gadget weighs little on the desktop – and may in fact make the PC user’s life just a little easier.

There are dozens of Gadgets available on the Web, and the number is growing every day. See below for some links to some interesting offerings.

References and Further Reading

Technical

1. Microsoft. "Gadget Development Overview ".  2007. MSDN - Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft Technical documentation. Microsoft. 1st April 2007 2007. <http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723694.aspx>.

Other

Download the Google Sidebar/Gadget at: http://desktop.google.com/en/GB/?utm_source=en_GB-et-more&utm_medium=et&utm_campaign=en_GB

Download the Gadget Guy Gadget:http://www.gadgetguy.com.au/articles/368/microsoft-windows-vista-now-with-added-gadget-guy-gadget-computing

Visit the Windows Vista Gadget Gallery: http://vista.gallery.microsoft.com/vista/sidebar.aspx