Testing Yahoo Widgets
So, I tried out Yahoo Widgets, the program for putting lots of li’l programs on your desktop. Yahoo Widgets was formerly Konfabulator, until Yahoo bought them very recently.
Here are my installed widgets. Click the image to find out what they are thanks to Flickr’s notes. Also, thanks (again) to Adam Lasnik, who generously provided me with the Flickr account.
I was surprised how few widgets there are. I mean, there are hundreds, but the fact that I was able to go through the entire list this morning was surprising (I was expecting thousands). Still, there are quite a few useful ones, and I am satisfied with my collection. I could see it giving me a reason to return to the desktop more often (if only for Mets scores)
The big problem:
Image Name: Mem Usage:
Konfabulator.exe 8,672 K
Konfabulator.exe 7,032 K
Konfabulator.exe 6,608 K
Konfabulator.exe 3,040 K
Konfabulator.exe 3,024 K
Konfabulator.exe 3,024 K
Konfabulator.exe 2,816 K
Konfabulator.exe 2,196 K
Konfabulator.exe 1,392 K
Konfabulator.exe 1,072 K
Konfabulator.exe 952 K
I cannot possibly have a program I only occasionally use eating up so much memory. I suspect the next time my system locks up, this one is the first to go. I mean, these are widgets; that should imply tiny.
Other than memory issues, this seems like a fun thing worth playing around with. I suspect I’ll disable it after a few days, but I’ll get some fun out of it.
Nice a Mets fan!! I say we make a motion to move the mets to the NL West where they would have a two game lead, rather then being in last place!
Comment by Joe | August 1, 2005
The memory usage certainly is THE problem I have encountered with the widgets.
You can truly expect thousand of widgets as Yahoo wil be popularizing the software.
http://www.konfabulator.com/workshop
Yahoo also is currently developping their own.
Comment by Guillaume | August 1, 2005
I ran into the same issue when I tried Konfabulator a few weeks ago. Definitely not worth the performance hassle..
Comment by Devin | August 1, 2005
It looks great, but, I have installed it aleast 3 times in the last year and have uninstalled it quite soon after. somehow, it just doesn’t fit.
Comment by Bowling for O | August 1, 2005
I found out about Konfabulator when I heard Yahoo was buying them. I started using the iTunes widget religiously, but then I started getting a big slowdown in my system. And now I just have the weather widget sitting there because it has yet to really bother me. Still, it’s nice to be able to use a feature that my OSX-using friends have made me envious for.
Comment by Jason | August 1, 2005
Weren’t there like 600 pages worth of widgets? At least that’s what I’m remembering from when I installed Konfabulator a few days ago. The problem I saw is that you could only order them from newest to oldest, even though you could look in specific categories.
I would’ve liked to been able to order them by popularity (most often downloaded) or have some kind of ranking (1-5 stars or some such) that users can apply. Was any of this there and I just managed to overlook it? It was pretty late when I installed it.
Comment by Stu | August 1, 2005
Joe: Why would anyone root for any team other than the Mets? Oh, and you know what would really annoy you? Check out how the NL East was before they split the league into three division (i.e., before Atlanta and the Mets were in the same division). The Mets would have made the playoffs almost every year in the second half of the ’90s.
I think the best use for the widgets would be on a machine you don’t usually use, like a screen on your refrigerator. Handy, but not worth having on your main computer. Who ever looks at their desktop anyway?
There are currently 645 widgets.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | August 1, 2005
Widgets are good and worth it. You just need to get it down to what you really need.
Like do you really need a clock widget since there is a clock in your systray? Do you really need a widget for shut down / reboot when you can press the Winkey-Up Arrow-Enter and get the same screen? Do you need volume when you can click the speaker in the systray?
It’s easier to put up with the memory they’re using when you download ones that you really care about the function of. My list of widgets is in this post:
http://blog.mattwalters.net/archives/142
Comment by matt | August 1, 2005
[…] One aspect I hadn’t noticed before, these things are coded in Javascript (+XML), so I guess you get the easy service interfacing without the weight of a browser. However here’s a word of warning, they are quite memory-hungry (but memory’s cheap..?). Danny@09:15 | Programming […]
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