Widgets/Gadgets

I installed the following 5 widgets/gadgets:

1. Live Weather Gadget
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.labpixies.com/campaigns/weather/weather.xml&source=imag

2. Weather
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?spid=1:113115786110322176896:106512534632999922029&moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/builtin_weather.xml

3. Flight Tracker
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.flights.com/flight_tracker_gadget.xml&source=imag

4. flight Status – flightstats.com
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=flight+tracker&url=www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/AddGoogleHomePageFlightStatus.module

5. Word of the Day
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/wod-module.xml&source=imag

I selected these gadgets because they all display on my iGoogle homepage and they conveniently tell me information that I find interesting or frequently look up such as the weather and flight status updates. Having useful and frequently used sites automatically load onto my iGoogle page is very convenient for me as I often start at this page to access my Gmail account or RSS reader.

The first two weather widgets are to provide me with weather information. I chose to have two related widgets for several reasons. Since weather forecasts for the Anchorage area often seem hard to predict I can compare two Anchorage forecasts to see how similar they may be. I also like the added feature of the “Weather” gadget in that it allows me to simultaneously track other cites that I have friends and family in. I found both weather widgets effective in the simple task of providing me with a basic and easy to find weather forecast for cities I care about I will continue using these widgets as long as I keep accessing my iGoogle page.

I chose the flight tracker widget because it seems I periodically need to pick up friends and relatives from the airport or I have interests in seeing how their flying itinerary goes. The purpose of this widget is to provide flight status updates on flights. I found this widget to be reasonably effective. It can easily give you flight status information on an initial query, however when checking the same flight over the course of a day or hours the iGoogle widget is not able to simply upload or refresh using updated information. If one wants an updated status after the initial query one must retype the airline code and flight number. In this regard I found it easier to just go to the official flighttracker.com web site and hit refresh or simply type the airline and flight number into a Google search window. I do not anticipate to continue this widget because is seems easier to go directly to flightstatus.com or enter the airline and flight number into a basic Google search. Both of these options offer the ability to refresh the page with automatically updated flight information.

I also tested a related flightstatus.com widget. I did not particularly like this widget because it seemed to only serve as a bookmark to the original flightstatus.com web site. Any flight search within this widget takes one directly to the flight status.com web site rather than working and viewing the information with my iGoogle page. I find it easier to look up the direct web site myself or use a web browser bookmark function rather than take up competing space on my iGoogle home page.

The “Word of the Day” widget was chosen as a entertaining diversion on my iGoogle page that is also educational. I find it interesting to learn new words and see them used in context. It’s purpose is to provide new and interesting words, that I might increase my vocabulary. I find it is very effective in this simple and entertaining purpose. I will look forward to reading the new word of the day every time I log into my iGoogle page.