Fox Interactive Media Releases SpringWidgets
So there’s been a lot of talk about widgets and gadgets in the Web.20 landscape. More and more, people want the ability to completely customize their online experience. Operasoft, Mozilla, and Microsoft have all taken steps to incorporate widgets and gadgets into their browsers that provide that sort of customization experience.
Fox Interactive Media is jumping into the foray too, announcing SpringWidgets at the Widgets Live! Conference in San Francisco. The software is proprietary, and designed to function in a cross-platform browser environment.
Initial Widgets available include an IGN Entertainment RSS Reader, a FOXSports.com Scoreboard and a MyFox Local Weather Room.
Browser independent widgets seems like a good idea to me, but I’m not sure how I feel about Fox sponsorship. Sure, the API is available to all developers, but how would Fox feel if someone modified ESPN’s BottomLine to function as a SpringWidget? That’s direct competition with the pre-bundled FoxSports.com product.
Personally, I’d like to see a completely open source widget project, allowing for freedom and flexibility for developers to come up with any and all widgets they can possibly imagine, without the hassles of corporate sponsorship.
This is Don from SpringWIdgets, the above mentioned widget platform.
We built the platform with developers in mind, so If you have widgets that you would like to build on the platform - please do so. All are welcome.
To answer your question about a modified ESPN bottom line… We would love to see it. We are not going to be blocking any particular brand or company from producing widgets on the SpringWidgets platform.
We’ll have information on how to submit widgets in a few days.
Thanks,
Don Synstelien
SpringWidgets.com
Don,
Thanks for the information. I’m glad to know you had the developers in mind when you designed the platform.
I’m also glad to know that company/brand will play no factor in the widget development process. That is totally cool and very much in line with what I feel is the spirit of the Internet.
Please let me know when you have the process for submitting widgets finalized. Thanks for posting!