In the regular world a widget is a ‘gubbins’ or a ‘thingy’ – i.e. an object, product or an example of something that doesn’t have a name. In the techie world a widget is a piece of software. From the point of view of the developer or programmer, widgets are scripts and technical components like menus, buttons and scrollers that are used to make groovy things.
From the user’s point of view, those groovy things are the tools, widgets and apps that we love to play around with like clocks, countdowns, trackers, calendars, webcams, weather guides, games, contacts, news feeds, radios, photos... Essentially widgets are an A-Z of accessories for your desktop, website or mobile.
In the widget wonderland that is now the web, blogs and personal pages on MySpace or Facebook can be swamped in them ad nauseam. NO!! I don’t need a fcukin Poke! You wangka! And you can stuff your mu€a-fcukin FoodFights and Vampire suk-offs up your stinking fcukin buttwhole! You tossa! Some apps are worth avoiding.
Desktop widgets have been around for a while, the first collections were pioneered by Yahoo’s Konfabulator so Yahoo is a great place to root around. It has a giant toolkit of easy to download accessories and there’s manual for developers. Much the same is offered by Google and Microsoft. Apple runs its own rather magical Dashboard, and for users of other operating systems or browsers like Unix or Firefox, there are endless plug-ins or extensions. 
Mac DashboardWebsite widgets are relative newbies on the scene but they've quickly caught the imagination because they're easy to manage, fun to use, and gorgeous to look at. So they're rolling through the web like a happy circus and everyone’s getting in on the act. Major sites have widgets of their own and there's a growing number of dedicated engines full of ‘my webpage’ toys and ‘How To’ guides to help you craft accessories of your own. And since most of the toys are free, you don’t need to shell out unless there’s something you’re really keen on. A couple of engines and fun sites are listed below.
