Yahoo! buys Konfabulator

And I am not talking about just one license here, I mean the whole darned company. It seems that the search engine giant is looking for more ammunition in its fight with Google, and thinks that widgets are just what the doctor ordered.

Konfabulator will now be free (anyone who purchased 2.0 will be issued a refund) and will be tailored to draw information from a variety of Yahoo related services. Is this a big deal? Well, for the makers of Konfabulator it sure as heck is.

I wonder if they will discontinue the Mac version now, or if it will become as buggy as Yahoo Messenger is on my Mac?

Update: Mark Perton, of Download Squad, links to a MacCentral article in which Arlo Rose says that Mac development will continue, and they are looking at becoming even more cross platform (widgets on your TIVO).

The real question is, now that Konfabulator is free are you going to download it, or are you happy with Dashboard (if you're running Tiger)?

Thanks, Clint!

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Source: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2005/7/24/795

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And I am not talking about just one license here, I mean the whole darned company. It seems that the search engine giant is looking...

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Todd

No Yahoo/Konfab for me...Dashboard is elegant and just works...I downloaded Konfab for my work Windows XP laptop and it crashed my system. I just uninstalled it to get up and running again.

July 25 2005 at 11:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

W. Ian Blanton

Well, this fixes the one problem that *I* had with the Konfabulator model - that you had to pay for the runtime. Don't get me wrong, I think Arlo and company deserve money, I just think they were either charging too much for the or they were charging the wrong people. I think they should have been charging for dev. kits to make widgets, or charging less for the client and more for dev. version. I also "kind" of prefer the way that Dashboard works, as cool as the widgets (K) are, I just don't have the screen real-estate to have them up there all the time. I'm a lot more likely now to give Konfabulator another shot tho, now that it won't cost me anything. I do hope that Yahoo! won't muck it up...

July 25 2005 at 11:29 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Scott McNulty

Joseph, That has to do with our lovely 'confirm your comment' system. Dan wrote his before you, but he confirmed after you. :)

July 25 2005 at 11:04 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gary Troup

Hmm...Why when I posted last night, I had the first entry, and then this morning, mine is now second???

July 25 2005 at 10:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brooke

Shouldn't this headline be: Yahoo! buys! Konfabulator!

July 25 2005 at 10:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Thomas

I downloaded it just as soon as I knew it was free. I like dashboard, but I also like to see widgets without opening dashboard.

July 25 2005 at 10:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

New Yahoo APIs could be used for new third party Dashboard Widgets as well... But really, they are just toys, mostly useless. Konfabulator chews up a boatload of RAM and makes my Windows work PC slow to a crawl.

July 25 2005 at 9:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Random

Well, this will be fabulous for my PC. I'm so used to using widgets now on my Mac that I keep hitting the F12 button or dragging my mouse to the bottom right corner automatically. (My other SwitchBack&Forther's horror is my constant attempt to use the Windows key to cut & paste). I guess it will all just depend on what kind of widgets Konfaboo!ulator offers.

July 25 2005 at 9:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave Caolo

I found Konfabulator to be only mildly useful, and I find Dashboard to be only mildly useful. Fun, sure, but my computing experience isn't made better by either application. Widgets for my Tivo? Why would I want that?

July 25 2005 at 8:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

KissTheRing

Free Konfabulator? Cool this will be great for my windows computer at work.

July 25 2005 at 8:24 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply