what is a widget?

Question

a client of mine has a website and has said that he is..... "Also looking at making widgets so that we can be used with Blogs and MySpace etc." .........what? what are widgets and how are they used with blogs and myspace?

Answer 1

Answer

There is no one thing called a widget. The term is used genericaly like gadget or gizmo.

It's often used in an academic context, especially in business schools or economics classes. For example, an economics professor might talk to her students about "the supply and demand for widgets," or a marketing teacher might ask his students to develop "a plan for selling widgets." By using a generic term they keep their students from being distracted by the item itself.

Answer

I believe originally the term widget was used in reference to a device or article the name of which you had either forgotten or never knew in the first place. For example: In the English brewing industry the term widget is a applied to a small device found in cans of beer which make the beer froth in a similar fashion to beer pumped from a keg - it became known as a widget because no-one could think of any other name for it.

Answer

In the brewing industry a widget is a small plastic or nylon device which has small holes in it and is bottled or caned inside the beer. Widgets then release small bubbles of nitrogen into the packaged beer when the container is opened.

Answer 2

To other answerers (especially those with the beer answers), please take a good look at where you are. This is the programming section. Many terms that have English definitions have specific programming definitions as well. Please do not respond if you don't know the programming version (or are absolutely certain there is no programming version).

Now, a widget in programming can refer to either of two things. The first is GUI development, and the second is a chunk of code in webpages. Your friend was referring to the webpage version.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget

It's basically a chunk of code. You put it in a webpage and it does something. What it does is irrelevant. You can put it on any webpage and it can do anything from displaying an ad banner to a flash game. Even the code, for say, a Youtube video on your website is a widget.

Answer 3

What are Yahoo! Widgets?
Yahoo! Widgets help you save time and stay current by bringing an always-updated, at-a-glance view of your favorite Internet services right to your desktop.
The Yahoo! Widget Gallery offers over 4,000 desktop Widgets - the most available anywhere online. Yahoo! Widgets is the only major desktop Widgets platform that works on both Windows and Mac OSes.

Almost all Yahoo! Widgets were dreamt, designed, and built by members of our bustling developer community. Our authors range from professional software designers and developers, to hobbyists, to major media outlets, to Madison Avenue ad agencies. If you love a Widget (or have useful feedback), find that Widget in the Gallery and make sure to leave a comment for the author.

Hungry for more? Take the Widgets Tour, or Download Yahoo! Widgets today.

TO DOWNLOAD THESE EXCELLENT TOOLS AND TOYS, GO TO...http://widgets.yahoo.com/info/

MUCH LOVE
PATRICK

Answer 4

The word widget is an old term for any object (often an engineering object) for which there is no other name, or for which the proper description is too long to be used commonly (e.g. the thing used to put froth in canned beer), or as a generic term for non-specific items (many exam papers carry questions about fictional companies that manufacture widgets).

Answer 5

I pasted this from another answer I have previously read here
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Widgets in yahoo is like Microsoft's Vista Gadgets.These are little programs that primarily use web services.

For example there are widgets that tell you how is the weather forecast, others let you read headlines from your favourite news paper, others can display images from a site. All this is done by small applications that are on your desktop. There are also widgets that do very simple tasks: calendars, calculators, clocks, program launchers...

In a technical view, there are several kinds of programs:
1-native - the common exe's, like word, paint, explorer... They can be only executed in one kind of operating system (for example, windows). This kind of files contains machine and Operating System-specific instructions.

2-portable- java based and new .NET exe's. They are run by using an interpreter (java virtual machine or microsoft's net framework). They can run on any kind operating system or computer that has the interpreter. This kind of files contains something called "intermediate code", which is generic, as opposed to that of exe's, which is specific.

3- scripts: they are like portables, but they run inside your web browser. This kind of files contains text instructions for the browser, and is a mix of html and javascript.

4- Widgets/Gadgets: we can say they are a mix of 2 and 3: they need a kind of interpreter (in this case yahoo widgets engine), but they are scripts.

In my oppinion, MS has copied this idea and added it to the new windows vista.

If you want to see widgets in action visit widgets.yahoo.com. It's a gallery where you can find widgets for what you need.

Also, if you want to make your own widgets, you can find here tools and tutorials (you should know how to program!)
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Hope this helps

Answer 6

Widget is the collective name for buttons, sliders, menu bars, title bars and other paraphernalia that windows can have or contain - awidget set is a collection of all the necessary widgets of a particular style

Answer 7

It's a good name for something that you use on a computer. When people hear your screaming WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGET all that's going to come to mind is yahoo widgets.

Answer 8

Widgets are applications that are small in size that run at the same time, usually in the background. They are usually calendars etc. I currently use them on Mac OS X for ebay. The myspace one will have you put your myspace user info into it and then it will let you know if you have any messages etc.

Answer 9

Simply put, a widget is short for Windows Gadget. To explore what it can do, go to Yahoo! Widget

Answer 10

a widget is a device for making gas in beer cans when open, nothing to do with computers unless its another word being used in the wrong text