October 4th, 2006
10 Essential Google Gadgets
The big news today was Google making available gadgets (aka widgets) for website owners to add to their webpages. I took a look through the 1220 gadgets on offer in Google's gallery and chose my 10 favorites. I chose gadgets that I thought would be useful, or had potential. I deliberately did NOT choose weather or clock gadgets (that's so 2005).
1. Digg News
Shows the top digg.com news.
Recent videos from Google Video.
Bitty is the little browser that goes on any Web page, it's like Picture-in-Picture for the Web. This is one of my favorite mini web apps!
This gadget tells you when you have new messages and friend requests on MySpace, right from your Personalized Google Homepage.
5. Socializer by web2announcer.com
Socializer module connects you with all the web 2.0 web sites. Get the latest stories from digg, del.icio.us, netscape and more.
Discover AOL Sessions; get the latest performances and listen to music online and studio sessions with AOL.com.
7. Fast Office
This module provide fast links to several AJAX office tools. More will be added as they become available.
Torrent Search in 27 Top Torrent Sites.
There were a number of Flickr gadgets, but this seems like the best. It's description: Flickr Nugget Category: Fun & Games Displays Flickr photos. Set it to display your photos, your favorites, your contacts', Flickr Interesting, Recent, or tag search. Requires your Flickr e-mail address. No password necessary.
MS Outlook Inbox and Calendar. Now to be honest I'm not sure why anyone would want their Outlook details showing on a website, but I guess it has potential…
Those are my top 10 Google gadgets so far - what are yours?
See Also: Why Google apps will stay inside the browser; Google Office: a close-up look; Google’s golden run continues
