News 

These are small programs such as clocks, stock tickers, news feeds, games and weather forecasts that display and update remote data. Originally developed by Karelia Software, widgets were widely popularised by Apple when it introduced its Dashboard environment in 2005. Karelia's Konfabulator technology was subsequently acquired by Yahoo! - which continues to develop widgets for both Windows and OS X. Google introduced its own version as gadgets last year, closely followed by Opera which opted for the widgets nomenclature. Like Google, Microsoft preferred gadgets for similar tools in the Sideboard feature of new Windows Vista operating system.

Currently there is no formally standardised way to develop widgets for distribution and deployment on the Web, so each developer has come up with their own solution to what W3C says is essentially the same set of problems. The Working Group hopes that by standardising widgets, developers will be able to deploy them on

ADVERTISEMENT

a variety of platforms and devices in a manner that is both easy to use and device independent. This is particularly relevant for mobile devices, where the diversity of platforms does not sit well with the current fragmented approach to widget development.

The 28 updated requirements call for a standardised media type and consistent file extension, so that devices can easily associate widgets with the appropriate host runtime environment. The format must be one that is royalty-free, open and widely implemented across a wide range of devices and suitable for archiving widgets in such a way that it ensures longevity. It should also provide developers with the ability to create files and directories in any language to provide support for digital signing so that a user agent can verify the authenticity and the integrity of the package.

Other requirements include the use of XML, support for users' preferences and automatic updating.

Some efforts have been made to 'standardise' widget development. Opera, for example, uses the AJAX platform, while Apple's Dashboard employs WebKit, which is available under an open-source licence (although it is worth noting that Apple is not yet prepared permit the use of desktop Dashboard widgets on its forthcoming iPhone, despite the handset's widget capability). There are also Java (J2ME) based implementations for mobile devices. However the very fact that competing technologies are proliferating suggests that the W3C is right to at least look at the possibility of establishing a common approach.

The Widgets 1.0 Requirements document is published at w3.org.