Yahoo's Puts Out Major Release of Konfabulator (3.0)

Yahoo puts out a major release of Konfabulator (3.0). I had a chat with Toni Schneider, Yahoo’s VP of the Developer Network, about this big news for the Yahoo developer group. More on the upcoming Podcast here at PodTech (Toni was busy working all weekend so I could sit down with him in time for the announcement). Konfabulaor is described as a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to - it’s very AJAX’y. Available at widgets.yahoo.com

Personally I love this product and see many implications for providing PodTech podcasting utilities for users (more on that another time).

The big news here: it’s a major new release of Konfabulator (3.0), significant for a few reasons

- First version of Konfabulator that’s fully tied into the Yahoo Network: Konfab users can now log into their Yahoo accounts and access their Yahoo photo albums, address book, calendar, etc from desktop widgets

- The release contains 5 new Yahoo widgets (Maps, Search, Contacts, Mail, Notepad) and 4 revised ones (Photos, Calendar, Stocks, Weather)

- Widget developers can create widgets that tap into Yahoo user data (calendars, etc), plus other key new developer features like subviews and XML DOM support

- We’re releasing some usage numbers (like 10 MM widgets downloaded since the acquisition in early August (!))

- Konfab gets officially renamed to Yahoo Widgets (now that it’s fully integrated)

Why did Yahoo purchase Konfabulator? Yahoo’s recent purchase of Pixoria, developer of the quirky but seriously cool Konfabulator platform, has many pundits scratching their heads—what on earth would a web search company want with all of those software widgets? Even before buying Konfabulator, Yahoo has been pushing forward on several fronts to ease access into the company’s vast storehouses of content and services. For example, Yahoo APIs are available for developers to build their own Yahoo-centric search applications. Other APIs allow developers to build applications on top of Yahoo maps, music and Flickr services, and to integrate Yahoo content into web sites via RSS feeds.

This was a bold move at the time (to buy Konfabulator) but I have a feeling (as do others) that this will unleash some serious creativity for developers.

I have to say that Yahoo is very open and web 2.0 developer friendly.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 12th, 2005 at 4:38 am and is filed under PodTech, Yahoo, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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