Yahoo! Buys Konfabulator, a Combination That Makes Sense
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At the end of July, Yahoo! and Konfabulator decided to unite. For those unfamiliar, this news may indicate large scale changes for search engine and web service integration on your desktop. Konfabulator software will grant Yahoo! power similar to, if not better than, Google’s infant APIs. The entire desktop may provide new real estate for search engine competition.
Yahoo! lately seems to have some holes burning in its pockets. In late March, Yahoo! bought Flikr, a photo sharing site. Flikr was a great addition to their week-old blogging service. In June, VOIP provider Dialpad was bought by Yahoo!. This caused some interesting speculation about Yahoo!’s future in the communications business. In early July, it was Oddpost that Yahoo! swallowed. Planning to improve their own aging email service, Oddpost will provide Yahoo! with their innovative approach to a web service.
Less than a month later, Yahoo! and Konfabulator have announced that they are now becoming one. For anyone unfamiliar, Konfabulator is a widget tool that resides on your desktop. Konfabulator runs small programs in your workspace that can do anything from act as an alarm clock to keep you updated on weather forecasts and stocks. They’re small enough that they stay out of your way, and checking them is much faster than opening a web browser.
Running a couple widgets
If you’ve seen the Dashboard for OS X, it’s just like that. Or really, Dashboard is just like Konfabulator, since Apple more or less borrowed the idea.
Konfabulator used to provide a trial and then require a $19.99 registration fee. The program was pretty well worth the money, being the most developed and established widget tool. It was solid enough that people who own Apples continued buying the program after Dashboard was released.
Now, however, Yahoo! has immediately made Konfabulator free. Yep, go to konfabulator.com (http://www.konfabulator.com/) and download a free copy to try out. As for the people who recently paid for a registration, Yahoo! is going to refund those who purchased version 2.0. Besides offering great products for free, there are other exciting things about this Yahoo! deal.
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