Konfabulous

Yahoo has purchased Konfabulator a small software company that makes "widgets," very small applications that can run on either Windows or Mac machines.

The widgets are commonly used to fetch pieces of information from the Internet onto a user's desktop, without opening a browser window. Apple offers a "widgets dashboard" in its operating system, which has been very popular among users.

The news caught many in the web community by surprise, but in general reaction was positive, in no small part because Yahoo has said that Konfabulator's software will now be offered for free. But web watchers pondered what the move means for the search wars, and for the continuing development of syndication software.

Blog community response:

"I'm somewhat shocked by this...I guess I shouldn't be though. I wonder what Google has under its sleeve... It's actually interesting two see these to search engines battling it out."
--In a Mays

"Konfabulator is now free. Windows people rejoice. I assume this is an attempt to beat Google at the API game. Anyway, this is a big win for Windows people. Konfabulator isn't quite as cool as Apple's Dashboard, but still pretty cool. Windows people now get a little taste of how good Mac stuff is, at no charge.

Could this partially be a resonse to Google's interest with Firefox? Mozilla's also a rather robust platform for taking advantage of API's. Just a pondering."
--Robert Accettura's Fun With Wordage

"Yahoo!'s move is near and dear to my heart. Pretty much everyone in the media/tech mini-verse is going whole hog after blogging and RSS - and that's as it should be. We're witnessing the first and most public push for the adoption of the technology, and once Longhorn (oops, I mean "Vista") integrates RSS capabilities and brings it to the rest of the masses, the Syndicator's cocktail conversations about what he does for a living will get a whole lot easier."
--Syndicator Blog