If Silverlight 2 is Microsoft’s shining new addition to the family (and deservingly so) then gadgets, both Windows Vista Sidebar and web gadgets are the all but forgotten middle children. In this article I pose the question: Has Microsoft all but given up on it’s gadget platforms?
Consider the following:
- Many groups within Microsoft have blogs where they talk about what’s going on in the group, give advise on programming, etc, but some groups are more involved with their readers that others. The last post to the Windows Vista Sidebar Blog is dated July 31, 2007 and the Windows Live Gadget Blog is dated June 27, 2006.
- Most of the top players in Microsoft’s Live.com group (the innovators of web gadgets) have either left the company or moved on to other groups within Microsoft.
- At Microsoft’s MIX08 conference in Las Vegas, I did not hear the word “gadget” uttered once by any panel member or during the keynote.
Full Article – http://www.liveside.net/blogs/developer/archive/2008/04/11/is-microsoft-serious-about-gadgets.aspx
