What is Digg?80 Comments
- SquirrelOnFire, on 10/11/2007, -6/+77Thank you for that well reasoned and insightful comment. The author of the article no doubt reexamined her stance on the topic, as did everyone else who read your response. Thank you, you have truely made the world a better place with your stunning wit and remarkable insight.
- popothebright, on 10/11/2007, -3/+21I think they suck too. I mean who likes really short people?
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -5/+17I...PUT THE SCREW....IN THE TUNA
- Craga89, on 10/11/2007, -5/+17Who loves orange soda? KELL LOVES ORANGE SODA!
- str3ama, on 10/11/2007, -2/+13yea I have to say mashups and widgets are great, at least for one thing - APIs are exactly what we need on the Internet, greater access to information and more transparency between users and application. Greater transparency means that users can in turn contribute to the application, while modifying a service to their own tastes - in turn makes the application more profitable and helps add new features for the service in the long run.
As for his argument, even though you don't own the actual site or resources being used - a developer can create a business or niche industry out of another thriving business, sorta like creating a business by servicing these social networks with whatever service. I mean take a look at the Myspace layout generator that exist out there, or the SecondLife businesses that have sprung up..sure there's a company that owns the core resources, but people are able to making a decent amount of money purely through leveraging APIs and adding features that people want and that the main company won't add. Developers ARE making money through ads or by selling their creatoins (SecondLIfe is a great example, with people selling their 3d generated products - digital clothing, models, avatars etc ...these are things that depend on Lindanlab's SecondLife in order to be profitable) - PowerLlama, on 10/11/2007, -1/+10I'm at a loss as to who is trying to make a business out of widgets and mashups. I've never been charged to use them, and don't see anyone trying to make a profit off of them. I guess I just don't get the point of the post.
- popothebright, on 10/11/2007, -6/+14
a) who the ***** is leah culver?
b) i don't care - templest, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7Am I the only one that totally ignored this girl's article and jumped straight to her Flickr photos?
Yeah, I need a girlfriend. - jpt62089, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8I used widgets every single day. To me they are very useful. They give me the information I want right then and there. Instantly. No going on the web to find the information myself.
Widgets rock. - tandonmiir, on 10/11/2007, -6/+11You know why this is wrong?
Because the author is a woman. - cuoops, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Is this the same girl who got everyone to buy here a Macbrook Pro with the etching?
Yep it is..... - Angostura, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Precisely. The main thrust of the post appears to be 'it is a mistake for developers to base their businesses on widget development'. Uh, yes OK.
Nearly all the widgets I use have been put together by hobbyists who wanted a quick way to access certain information and then decide to make their efforts freely available.
I use the fabulous BBC Radio player widget daily (http://www.phantomgorilla.com/) and the BBC Weather widget (http://www.olivetoast.com/BBCWeather/) and I like iStat (http://www.islayer.com/) tremendously. Do they suck? No. Do people make cash from them directly? No. - celkin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Craga89 mispelled 'Kel.'
"Awww...here it goes!" - srodolff, on 10/11/2007, -4/+7Is it just me or does the author think widgets suck because the developers don't make money on them?
I, as a user, have a Calendar, weather, stock ticker, Day planner, and digital clock widgets tucked on the right side of my screen and would feel naked without them.
If you don't like widgets, don't use them. There are a whole slue of us who love them. - mweels, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4COME ON!!
How can you argue that aggregating data of multiple services to a single view and integrating that data across the data and views could not be valuable?
I think maybe this girl should go back to using paint shop pro and un-plug her internet connection. That way she wouldn't have to depend on anything but her and her selfish ideas.
The internet is shifting from single isolated services to a services with multi-views. Furthermore, a lot of companies have made money building widgets on top of platform look at the EBay companies.
Im pissed how wrong she is. - bobcrotch, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4IM A GIRL ON THE INTRAWEBZ PLZ4BUY ME STUFF LOL
- zackkitzmiller, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5This really brought me back. Thank you.
- Ashkc88, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Just goes to show you, you can't trust anything that bleeds for a week and doesn't die.
- aquadoguk, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I would've never found this story if it wasn't for my trusty digg widget.
- fantasyflamz, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3any mirrors?
And the only widgets I use is for weather on my desktop and a mini to-do list on the desktop. Too much and it just gets cluttered. - orangetiki, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I remember when Digg used to be a news site
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2i agree, widgets, and all the pointless web 2.0 *****. is just rubbish. example tag clouds. make it harder to get the infomation you want. and if you say that. the most used are bold, why would i want to know what the most used is. i would have noticed because the word is so popular!
- svenjick, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2IMHO, you missed the point of the article...
- trekkie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Why do we care what this person things about widgets? I did a quick google search and all i could find was she etched her mac and begged people to pay for it.
She a programmer? An analyst? What?
Buried as lame. - DiggDuggDone, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4I have to say that the NextBus widget is a great time saver in the morning. Just activate it and you know the time of arrival for the next three buses on your chosen route.
Starting in August 2007 they're saying they'll cover the entire MUNI line in SF, making it even that much better. (And saving me time just standing there waiting on a bus line that's notoriously late!) - svenjick, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2As a computer scientist doing my PhD, I perfectly understand what this blogger is saying, although I only got her point at the last paragraph. She is trying to describe something quite subtle about how modern programming has become so accessible and hype, and that real programmers shouldn't be loosing their time with widjets. And basically, yes, I agree: many of the students in our course don't know/understand/worship anything else than Java, and understand "f**k all" about higher level abstractions, which sadly are so fundamental to good programming.
That being said, I love the Cartoon Display widget... - bobcrotch, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4She's probably single and just needs something to complain about.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2What does a useful widget look like? There has to be something that people find useful. OSX widgets include things like weather trackers and airfare finders and other things that seem to have at least some intrinsic value. Are there any ideas for things that people WOULD find useful as a widget?
- SpookyET, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4Widgets are useful. Just because they are not useful to YOU, it does not mean that they are not useful to somebody ELSE. I, for one, love widgets. My only gripe is that the Vista Sidebar lacks quality widgets. There are only a few of them at http://gallery.live.com/results.aspx?bt=1&pl=1 . Most are horrible made by people who clone other people's work. Does anyone know of a Yahoo Widgets to Sidebar Gadgets converter?
Personally, I love Vista's implementation of widgets/gadgets. You can have them all over the desktop similar to Yahoo Widgets and OS X Dashboard and you can have them in a sidebar. It's pretty sweet if you have a wide-screen display since you can have the sidebar always active. - jivemasta, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Don't insult my/everyone's intelligence just because you can't formulate a good argument instead of using sarcasm. Anyone can extend an idea to a comical extreme, it takes real intelligence to compose a good and non-insulting rebuttal. Also, don't lump someone's nationality into their personal traits. Assuming, since you prefer the second "u" in humor, you must be english/british, I can infer that you enjoy watching ladies in bathing suits chase after some old dead pervert while saxophone plays in the background. A true connoisseur of humor/humour, indeed. It is possible to take the higher ground, as I have, and use your brain to rebut to someones opinion, without insulting your reader personally.
- Fairly, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Why does this babe get dugg aside from having a halfway decent rack? Lame.
- garths, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I won't speak for widgets, but as someone who has experience in the GIS (mapping) arena, I will say that mashups are critical for mapping applications. It is necessary for anybody doing anything non-trivial with a map to be able to combine data from different sources. This is something that developers of serious mapping software (e.g. ESRI) have known for decades.
Unfortunately, the first incarnation of mashups for online maps were lacking. A developer could mash together data sets, but a user had no ability to combine arbitrary data sets on the fly. Google seems to have figured out the problem with the release of mapplets, and finally Google Maps is progressing towards being something that may be considered a serious tool. - celkin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Forget widgets. Here are things we can REALLY live without:
1. ringtones: I keep my phone on vibrate mode because having 20 seconds of a song blasting out of a crappy phone speaker just isn't worth the $2.50. Also $2.50 for 20 seconds of a song versus $.99 for an entire song (which is also considered a rip-off) just makes no sense.
2. screensavers: the pracical thing to do with a computer is to have the monitor turn off automatically after a given amount of time, especially if a) you're using a CRT monitor which sucks up much more power than the rest of the computer or b) you're using a laptop running on batteries. Panning text across the screen repeatedly or displaying a 3D first-person-view maze (although it's very fun to watch) is SOOO 90's.
No need to rant about more. These two are the most common and most useless. I know I'm being off-topic, but this whole widgets thing just put me in the mood. - smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1what a ***** moron. all of her complaints can be made against firefox plugins, or any other piece of software that isn't a stand-alone application. people make widgets to fulfill specific needs or curiosities. it's useful to be able to share your flickr gallery on your blog, or to be able to display your most recently listened to tracks. these needs just don't warrant a full application dedicated to its purpose.
also, why is it so hard to grasp the idea that some people code for fun and don't require monetary compensation for every little coding project they decide to spend time on. she's obviously not a programmer, and i really have no idea why this ***** is even being dugg to the front page. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Besides, what's wrong with violins on television?!
- smurf22, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6The only widgets I really use are the ones on OSX Ive tried them on Windows and Linux I just dont like how they stay on my desktop.
- MatttK, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I think that MOST widgets suck but only because of the sheer volume. There are a lot of really good ones but even more really bad ones. That's why when you're look for widgets or Facebook apps or whatever, you sort by downloads, views, users, popularity, etc. (this does not include, obviously, if you receive a personal recommendation to use the widget from a friend).
- harvinator24, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4i for one like the espn, and weather channel widgets on osx, works great and keeps me up to date, and they dont stay on my desktop.
- mbs348, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4amen to that, I thought I was the only one who though that
- KaivenTor, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1As a Vista gadget developer (and not just as a hobby, I actually go to work to do this), I can definitely agree that 95% of the gadgets on Live.com are pretty bad. Most of them are glorified bookmarks, plenty of gadgets that should use an API don't, and the rest... Well... There are some good ones and some weird ones that hardly anyone will ever use.
To mention that Live.com gallery sucks horribly as an actual gallery system, well, I guess that's what we'd expect from Microsoft. In any case, not all widgets suck, though most of them do. Just got to find a nice one where the author actually attempted to solve a problem and go from there. Sad thing is that for most developers, it really wouldn't take much more effort to improve their stuff if they just thought about it for a couple seconds. - mweels, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Svenjick... Enlighten me. What was the point?
- celkin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1My dashboard has 16 different analog clock widgets on them. I'm CRAZY!!!
just kidding. I don't have a Mac. - p0tent1al, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1There are a whole *slew of us who love them.
^^ fixed - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"Small immediate access engine module" doesn't sound as good.
- opencoder, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3I thought I would add that open APIs for some services are good because they allow you to integrate that service into a full fledged application. Which is nice. An example is last.fm+any_music_player_ever_made. And this kind of thing allows really nice open development, and helps facilitate convergence, where applicable.
- clackerd, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2i'm a big fan of the movie and weather widgets. really handy little apps, like widgets should be. all you nay-saying widget dissers need to lay off the hater-ade.
- srodolff, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I know that word looked weird. And Digg spell check didn't catch it.
Oh well. BTW, I love Coleslew...........;) - smackhero, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1seriously, that was a dumb blog post. i spent about a week coding a personal AudioScrobbler widget, and i enjoyed doing it and being able to share the results. i get paid for web development and graphic design at work, but i don't need to be paid to do either of those things in my spare time. the reason i became a web developer is because i enjoyed it. she doesn't seem to understand that programming is a hobby for most developers, just as many professional musicians also play music for fun, and most graphic artists also draw for fun. just because other people can also enjoy it doesn't mean you have to charge for it or try to make money on it.
i can't understand people who think like that, and i honestly think that's the kind of stingy attitude that is ruining our society. - ornito, on 05/07/2008, -0/+0How do you know she's a woman? If I called myself JLo would that make me a woman? whatever she is that post got a lot of attention. Which probably makes her a lot smarter than you two douchebags.
- thetrueHaCKs, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2It's funny, i read this in my OS X digg widget lmao
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