Yahoo Widgets
The software was previously called Konfabulator, but after being acquired by computer services company Yahoo on July 25, 2005, it was rebranded.
Some of the most downloaded ones include a world time zone clock,[5] dedicated countdown timers,[6] simple RSS feed readers,[7] and webcam viewers.
Initially called Konsposé (alluding to Mac OS X's Exposé), it was renamed to "Heads-Up Display" with the release of Yahoo Widget Engine.
The Yahoo Widget Engine (Konfabulator) has a very flexible application programming interface (API) based on JavaScript with many features useful to developers.
Other features include the ability to download webpages from the Internet, as well as file input/output, and animator objects to aid in visual effects.
A built in interface allows widget developers to run OS specific code such as shell scripts and COM applications on Windows, and AppleScript on Mac.
Dock icons support a small subset of the engine's features, so they have the ability to display multiple images and text.
[12] Another new feature included in version 4.0 is the ability to automatically check gallery downloaded widgets for updates.
[16][additional citation(s) needed] Shortly prior to this, Apple released a similar widget engine, Dashboard, as part of its Mac OS X Tiger operating system.
Other programs offering similar functionality include Kapsules and AveDesk (for Windows), gDesklets (for GNOME), and SuperKaramba (for KDE).
The idea of Konfabulator originated in 1998, when Arlo Rose saw how he could skin the MP3 media player running on his computer.
"[18] Prior to this, he had experience with Kaleidoscope, a skinning program for the Apple Macintosh operating systems, akin to WindowBlinds.
He was unsuccessful until the year 2002, when Perry Clarke (who would later become one of the core developers of Konfabulator) heard about his idea and agreed to work with him on the project.
Initially he declined, but later he created a working prototype and presented it to the Konfabulator development team within two days.
A few months later, on May 18, 2005, the first major release of Konfabulator since version 1.0, Konfabulator 2.0 (sometimes shortened to K:2), was released, along with a visual overhaul of widgets, improved functionality, and a marked down price of US$19.95 from the previous US$24.95 (this was after many users, especially Windows users used to the idea of freeware and other cheaper widget engines, complained about the high price).
On May 23, 2006, the Universal binary of the Yahoo Widget Engine, version 3.1.4, was made available to users of Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Mac OSX – As of 10.11 El Capitan, the Yahoo widget dock no longer functions correctly.
Yahoo's updated documentation stated: "To increase the security measure and better serving our YDN customers, weather data source will enforce OAuth 1 starting March 15, 2016.
