Yahoo! Acquires Konfabulator
This past week search king Yahoo! announced that it has acquired software widget-engine Konfabulator in a move to spur third-party developers to devise new applications for the Internet giant's services. For those of you unfamiliar with Konfabulator and the neat desktop applications that can be found on their website, it is a JavaScript runtime engine that lets people run very small applications, or widgets, on either Windows or Macintosh systems.
So what does Yahoo! have planned for their new purchase? Well Yahoo! plans to run the widgets via XML feeds. These applications can perform any of a range of functions, from informing people of their Wi-Fi signal strength to dishing up the local weather to providing a battery monitor. There are literally hundreds of widgets available.
Konfabulator is one of many key pieces for accessing Internet content and now with Yahoo! in the picture, together they will be making these resources available to everyone in a format that's useable outside the traditional browser, as XML feeds.
Yahoo!'s acquisition comes as it is looking for ways to get outside developers more involved with writing applications for its content and putting greater pressure on its archrivals Google and MSN. This was indeed an interesting move on Yahoo!'s part and I can clearly see what they're trying to do as well as where they're trying to go with this acquisition. I have no doubts that this will be another success venture for Yahoo!. What the hell, there is really no reason to think otherwise… slap a Yahoo! logo on it and it turns to gold.
So what does Yahoo! have planned for their new purchase? Well Yahoo! plans to run the widgets via XML feeds. These applications can perform any of a range of functions, from informing people of their Wi-Fi signal strength to dishing up the local weather to providing a battery monitor. There are literally hundreds of widgets available.
Konfabulator is one of many key pieces for accessing Internet content and now with Yahoo! in the picture, together they will be making these resources available to everyone in a format that's useable outside the traditional browser, as XML feeds.
Yahoo!'s acquisition comes as it is looking for ways to get outside developers more involved with writing applications for its content and putting greater pressure on its archrivals Google and MSN. This was indeed an interesting move on Yahoo!'s part and I can clearly see what they're trying to do as well as where they're trying to go with this acquisition. I have no doubts that this will be another success venture for Yahoo!. What the hell, there is really no reason to think otherwise… slap a Yahoo! logo on it and it turns to gold.
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posted by Karl Ribas Tuesday, July 26, 2005 Read Comments (0) | Post a Comment | Subscribe  
 
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