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Feature: Page (1) of 1 - 08/08/08

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Working with Google Gadgets

The next step is to make it easy to create Gadgets

By Matthew David

Google has had Gadgets as part of its iGoogle home page for a couple of years. Now, however, there are two major things changing: 1) Gadgets are going socially aware and, 2) you can use Gadgets with data in your Google Spreadsheets.

What are Google Gadgets
Gadgets are not new to the Web. If you have a Yahoo!, MSN or Google account then you are likely familiar with Gadgets on your personal home page. Gadgets are small solutions that are built on Web standards such as HTML, JavaScript and CSS. There are quite literally thousands of Gadgets that range from telling you news, to letting you know the weather and even if you have any unread email in your in-box.

You can find additional Google Gadgets from your iGoogle personalized page by selecting "Add Stuff >>". The number of Gagets increases every day.

Social Gadgets on iGoogle
In response to the massive support by developers and users of Gadgets, Google is preparing a new release of the iGoogle personalized home page. The release will enable you to make any Gadget socially aware. What this means is that you can share the gadget with others. For instance, if you have a gadget that keeps track of "to do" items, any item you add will be shared with any one you have sharing the gadget with. Facebook frequently boasts that they have millions of users sharing their applications. With Google adding a social aspect to its already popular Gadgets, you can expect Google to leap frog Facebook as the #1 online social network. While Facebook is popular, it pales in comparison to the popularity of Google.

Google also brings to the plate, the capability to do something that other social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, have not been able to achieve: the capability to bring social networking to all demographics. Unless you are Gen Y or younger, it is likely that you do not use social networks. It is simply something we are not comfortable using. Google, on the other hand, is demographic neutral in that everyone uses Google.

Greater than 100 million users have iGoogle as their personalized home page. That's 1:8 users on the Internet already using iGoogle and Google Gadgets. Now add Gadgets that can be easily shared and you have a foundation that will make social networking as comfortable to use as Google search is itself. The next stage is to make Gadgets that are useful to people. For many of us, the first useful Gadgets told us the weather in our area. The information is important to our locality. Socially aware Gadgets will share the same locality, in other words, Social Gadgets will cover what is happening in your world.
 
Examples of this are Gadgets that list Little League games and practices for your son's team; maps for locations where your hiking group will be over the next 3 months; a list of mom's best recipes; gant chart listing tasks for a project you are working on with five other people - in other words, Gadgets that have meaning to a localized group that truly effects your day and those immediately around you. Google is bringing socialization home.
 
Using Gadgets in Spreadsheets
The next step is to make it easy to create Gadgets. Fortunately, Google has thought of this. Earlier in the year, Google added a feature to Google Docs Spreadsheets that enables you to take data from your Spreadsheets and visualize it through a Gadget. Examples include charts and graphs. Below you will see examples of an organization chart and map containing data you can control through Spreadsheet Gadgets:

 
At this point, Google Doc Gadgets look similar to Graphs in Microsoft Office. Google seperates this identity by allowing a Gadget to be published to your own iGoogle page. Through the editor options in the top right corner of the Gadget you can select to add the gadget to your iGoogle page or, more importantly, publish the Gadget. Publishing the Gadget allows you to add the contents in the Gadget to ANY Web site. It will look like this when published:

Without any complex development skills anyone can now add useful gadgets that have localized meaning. Leveraging Google's social awareness in Gadgets, you can easily share this information with a localized group.

Developing your own Gadgets
The next step is to go out and start creating your own content. The new iGoogle page is coming very soon. Be prepared for your Gran to start sharing content with you.