Yahoo widgets

 

Going Beyond the Browser
With the Konfabulator

By AARON RUTKOFF
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
September 9, 2005

Before Google's Sidebar and Apple's Dashboard there was the Konfabulator, a small program that can deliver virtually any sort of information to personal computers without a Web browser.

The Gimmick

For Arlo Rose, co-creator of the Konfabulator engine¹, the problem "was not really wanting to have a Web browser open to get information," he says. "I wanted to get weather information and to see battery levels on my computer without opening any other program."

This 'Widget' serves as a day planner. The Konfabulator engine is built to run virtually any information-based applet.

With Konfabulator applications, which are called "Widgets," the data stream remains while the browser window disappears entirely, replaced by a small, independent display on the desktop. Many Widgets can run at once, and when buried beneath other windows can be summoned forth with single keystroke. The concept is overwhelmingly simple, but somewhat hard to pin down in a world where access to information is normally dominated by the Internet browser.

The idea proved so compelling that Apple incorporated it with few modifications -- even maintaining the term "widgets" -- for a program called Dashboard that is bundled in with the new Mac OS X Tiger operating system.

Imitation, as far as Mr. Rose is concerned, had nothing to do with flattery in this case. A former Apple programmer, Mr. Rose says he was "steamrolled" by Dashboard.

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When word of Dashboard first leaked out in the Apple programmer community, nearly a year before Tiger's official release, it seemed Mr. Rose's former employer was poised to decimate the population of Konfabulator users. "All I can say is I was grumpy," he recalls. At the time, Mr. Rose's engine worked only on Macs and was distributed as shareware for a small one-time fee.

The looming threat of extinction pushed Mr. Rose and his two partners to roll out a Windows version of Konfabulator in November 2004 -- a development that brought the tiny company to the attention of Yahoo and saved it from obsolescence.

The Idea

At the most basic level, Konfabulator is a way to wrap graphically-pleasing "skin" around virtually any type of data -- from local traffic reports and weather conditions to the famous sayings of Yoda.

Konfabulator is powered by a JavaScript engine built to run open-source applets that use simple XML programming language. Beyond the dozen or so original Widgets, which were created in by Mr. Rose and come bundled with Konfabulator, all of the applets are created by users.

Many Widgets are simple derivations of earlier creations. The open source design, bolstered by tutorials³ and forums⁴, allows even relative novices to create their own Widgets to display personalized information. There are now 1,400 Widgets, and most can run on either Apple's Mac OS or Microsoft's Windows users.

That commitment to open source development, which aims to extend the world of programming to a mass audience, made Konfabulator an interesting commodity for Yahoo, which bought it in July for an undisclosed amount. "If we could open it up to everyone, we could become an operating system for the world," explains Yahoo Vice Pre Toni Schneider, who leads the company's Developer Network⁵.

"You can build a Widget," he promises. "As long as you're not computer-phobic, you could probably build a basic one. It is really designed for people who don't know how to program."

The Creator

Mr. Rose, a 33-year-old Bay Area native, has made a career out of the art of user interface and grassroots programming. He left Apple in 1997, where he had worked on the user interface system for Mac computers.

A collection of 'Widgets' sit on a PC desktop. When buried beneath other programs, they can be summoned with one keystroke.

Mr. Rose then launched Kaleidoscope⁶, a third-party user interface system for Macs that allowed individuals to modify the basic appearance of the operating system. In an era when Apple products were not the fashion plates of today, Mr. Rose's alternative system gained a large and devoted following.

The inspiration for Konfabulator, as he recounts in an online comic strip⁷, came while playing with the customizable "skins" of Winamp, one of the first big PC-based audio players. "I like doing stuff people can adapt to their own personalities," Mr. Rose says.

He eventually recruited programmer Perry Clarke to turn out the earliest version of Konfabulator in 2002, which worked only on Mac systems. The previous success of Kaleidoscope "drummed up a lot of buzz right away" for the new program, Mr. Rose recalls. The two formed a software firm called Pixoria and even added an additional employee.

As a business, with a one-time fee of $19.95 for revenue, the Pixoria employees "did do really well with it," Mr. Rose says. "Three of us supported ourselves in Silicon Valley, which is not the cheapest place to live."

Apple's addition of the strikingly similar Dashboard, made Mr. Rose a figure of controversy: he expressed a deeper level of acrimony⁸ in other media interviews and sparked heated debate⁹ in the tech world, with programmers¹⁰ divided¹¹ over the fairness of Apple's move.

The Tipping Point

At the end of July, when Yahoo bought Pixoria, it quickly rebranded the Konfabulator as Yahoo! Widgets¹² and made it free. Now, nearly 200 new Widgets are submitted each week¹³ -- with well over 150,00 Widget downloads each day.

Yahoo's Mr. Schneider admits the Konfabulator's Widget technology is a way for the Web search company "to go beyond the browser."

"That said, Widgets are not a replacement for Web sites," he adds. "They're a great, visually really exciting way to show snippets of information that can then lead you back to a full Web page."

Both Messrs. Schneider and Rose dismiss the idea that Widgets could become a revenue source for Yahoo by bearing advertisements. Both men also rule out any restrictions that might block online rivals, like Google or eBay, from being used as data sources by independent Widget creators; applets now available help users check Gmail accounts and monitor live auctions without logging on to a Web site.

"The whole idea of Konfabulator is that it is as open as you want it to be," Mr. Rose says. "That we would change from that open idea is just not something we are going to do at any point."

Write to Aaron Rutkoff at aaron.rutkoff@wsj.com¹⁴