Traffic Stats from Microsoft

I found something interesting on my stats page. Someone or something from Microsoft came from Live Search, having searched for a word that I know doesn’t exist anywhere on my website. Maybe it’s a test to see if websites fall under the wrong search terms? Who knows! If someone does, please tell me!

I won’t say what the word is, because then there really will be people coming here looking for it! And I don’t need that kind of traffic. But, I will show a screenshot for anyone who is curious.

Click the preview below to view the full image.

Yahoo! Widgets 4

I officially have Yahoo! Widgets 4, being that it was released today as I said it would be in Yahoo Widget Engine, Formerly Known As Konfabulator. Upgrading from the previous version was very easy and all my widgets work. Of course I had to set them up again, but that wasn’t difficult.

There is one new feature that is noticeable right away. The dock shows up automatically on the right side of the screen showing all of the available widgets. This dock can be collapsed to only show the currently running widgets as well. If you don’t like the dock taking up a little bit of space, set it to automatically hide and just move your mouse over it to see it again. Otherwise, I guess you can disable the dock if you don’t like it at all.

A second new feature (my favorite) is a widget that lets you browse the widget gallery without opening a browser. If you have the dock open, you will also be notified of new widgets that are available! Good job Yahoo!

Click on the preview on the right to view the widgets that are currently on my desktop, along with the dock showing.

Widgets running: Desk Calendar, Live Search Mini, Neon Gauges, Neon Clock and Yahoo! Weather (which is included with YW 4).

There is also a video tour of Yahoo! Widgets 4 running that is available if you’re curious, but not sure about installing yet.

Overall, I’m impressed with this new release. I think the dock showing the currently active widgets is a very nice idea. YW 4 gets a rating of 4.5 stars from me. If they would come up with a catchier name, I would give them 5 stars!

UPDATE: Because of a comment made by Jonathan Strauss (product manager for Yahoo!) (see below), I am changing the rating from 4.5 stars to 5 stars!

Yahoo Widget Engine, Formerly Known As Konfabulator

I started using Konfabulator a couple years ago and fell in love with being able to have these widgets on the desktop which provide all kinds of information. For example, there’s weather, clocks, search tools and more. The best part is that it’s free, looks really nice on the desktop and is easy to install and setup.

Then, Yahoo acquired Konfabulator and it became Yahoo Widget Engine. No offense Yahoo, but Konfabulator has a much nicer ring to it and it will always be Konfabulator to me. I still even type in www.konfabulator.com in the browser, only because that is the name that stuck with me and sometimes I forget what sub-domain Yahoo has put it at.

It’s been several months since I’ve kept up with what’s happening with YWE, but just recently I decided to check it out again and see if anything has changed. It turns out they are releasing a new version of YWE on March 22, which happens to be tomorrow! I’m really excited because I’d like to know what they’ve been working on since it’s been quite a while since they released anything.

My current desktop on my desktop computer (running Windows) has a few widgets. I don’t like to have too many because it just clutters the desktop, which is just as bad as desktops that are full of all those icons. Click the preview on the right to view the full screenshot.

Google Updater and Google Pack

Even though I don’t really like having something install software for me without allowing me to customize any settings, Google Updater for the Google Pack is really nice. I like the idea of being able to update any installed software without having to open up the browser and check to see if there are any updates for whatever software I want to update. Google Updater can also be set to automatically update for you.

If you don’t want everything that comes included in the Google Pack, you can remove the ones you don’t want installed. For example, I only wanted Picasa and nothing else, so I removed all the others. Now, anytime I open up Google Updater, it checks for updates to any of the software from Google and its partners, such as Adobe Reader.

If you would like to see what is offered in the Google Pack and possibly download it, check it out

Click the preview on the right to view the full image.

Create A Homepage in Less Than One Minute

Ever wanted your own place on the web, but don’t know how or where to start? HomepageNOW will do all of this for you. And, the best part is that it’s free! Don’t believe me? Take a look for yourself.

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