Windows Live Gadgets SDK

A recently released SDK will make it easier for developers to build Windows Live Gadgets, small applications that users can add to their customizable Live.com start pages. The SDK demonstrates some concepts that could eventually prove useful in corporate applications, and Windows Live Gadgets could become a valuable way to promote Web sites. However, applets created with the new SDK may have a short lifespan: the Windows Live Gadgets platform could get major changes as it converges with the similar gadget platform of Windows Vista.

Windows Live Gadgets are one type of component used on Live.com, a home page that users can customize by dragging and dropping components such as RSS feeds or headlines from popular Web sites. (Live.com is the outgrowth of an internal MSN project called Start.com, and began beta testing in late 2005 as part of the Windows Live initiative; for more background on Windows Live, see “Understanding Windows Live” on page 35 of the June 2006 Update.)

Technically, gadgets are small JavaScript applications. Many gadgets display information updated frequently from other Web sites or services-for example, exchange rates from a financial information service, or a list of the most popular music downloads on Apple’s iTunes service. While most Windows Live Gadgets are created by hobbyists or Microsoft today, that could change if Live.com matures into a site with more general appeal, at which point Gadgets could become useful tools for promoting other Web sites.