Yahoo! Widgets
In a quest to reduce my Starbucks intake, I have discovered the world of Yahoo Widgets, and I love them. I think you will as well, unless you are a Barista.

If you are like me, your web browsing habits are fairly routine. I fire up the New York Times Real Estate section, check the weather back home at Weather.com, read my favorite blogs and check the stocks. The process takes approximately one Vente double shot latte at the closest Starbucks. Enter Yahoo Widgets, and my time savings amount to simply getting an espresso.

Weather Widget
Yahoo Widgets are little information buckets (or portlets) that sit on your desktop and are continually updated while you are connected to the internet. While some display text, the interesting ones graphically present the info. I particularly like the weather forecast chart. Now rather than surfing from site to site, I simply press ‘F8’ and see all my information on one screen. I can drag them wherever I want on my desktop to organize how I like. Take a peek at a sample from a colleague back at the office.

Yahoo Widgets were formerly called Konfabulator before being purchased by Yahoo late last year. They work on the PC and Mac (just like Patrick) and are free to download. Over one million people have downloaded widgets. Anyone can create a Widget as well, which means that some are good and some are not. Yahoo has a galley of over 2,000 widgets to choose from.

For anyone looking to keep in touch with customers, a Yahoo Widget might be a good supplement to email marketing. Create a nice looking widget that can broadcast your news, your podcasts, or even your event calendar. Maybe Starbucks will do one to remind me about my need for Lattes again.