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Yahoo acquires Konfabulator

Monday July 25, 2005 5:20 am PDT by Arnold Kim
Macworld reports that Yahoo has acquired Konfabulator.

Konfabulator is a popular extensible Widget engine which preceded the existence of Apple's Dashboard. Konfabulator widgets provide similar services by pulling information from websites. (gallery of widgets)

Konfabulator was first available for the Mac as a shareware application, but has since been also released as a Windows application. Yahoo plans on using Konfabulator as a way to push information to users and attract traffic to its sites. Following Yahoo's acquisition, Konfabulator will now be distributed freely.

Apple received some criticism on the similarities between Dashboard and Konfabulator. Yahoo's acquisition and distribution of Konfabulator will no doubt increase awareness and interest in Widget technology. Currently, the company plans on continuing development on both the Mac and Windows versions.
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MrSugar
86 months ago
Pretty cool that it's free now. I wonder what the price point was? I will probably have to give it a try now that it's under new management.
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andiwm2003
86 months ago
i hope the guy who made it got a lot of cash. after apple "reinventing" his program he certainly deserves it.
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Jesus
86 months ago
does this mean that yahoo will start deleloping lots of mac software???


JESUS
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daustin
86 months ago
Apple has announced an ALL NEW technology that will be included in the next release of OS X. The new HTML based program can be accessed by users via Safari and is being called Yahoo. This all new Apple technology will allow users to access various bits of information freely from the internet and search for millions of websites around the world.
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g4cubed
86 months ago
Wasn't Konfabulator suppose to be making a PC version?
I never was crazy about widgets, from them or Apple.
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iMeowbot
86 months ago

does this mean that yahoo will start deleloping lots of mac software???

The Yahoo and Pixoria people are actually hinting that the existing Yahoo Dashboard widgets may now fall by the wayside.
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iMeowbot
86 months ago

Wasn't Konfabulator suppose to be making a PC version?

There has been a Windows version for a while, and a Linux version is supposed to be in the works.
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BornAgainMac
86 months ago
I didn't like Konfabulator. Too much screen clutter away on my desktop. And without Expose, it will be really bad with Windows. The idea was good so I hope the developer got paid.
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Abstract
86 months ago
Love those widgets, but I agree that I feel a bit sorry for Konfabulator. T'was a good idea, and Apple ripped them off.

Hope Yahoo does something great with the technology on the PC side of things. Everyone should have the option to get Widgetified.
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kainjow
86 months ago

There has been a Windows version for a while, and a Linux version is supposed to be in the works.

What would be the point of a Linux version? They're a shareware company, they do things to make profit. Making a Linux version (which would have to be OSS) would be profitable how.... ? :confused:
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