Yahoo! buys out Konfabulator
gurk! didn't see this coming...
arlo rose has had a long-standing, well, not "feud" per se, since that would imply that apple returned the favor, but they didn't really care about him. i can't recall if he was fired from apple, or left of his own accord, or irreconcilable differences, but i do remember him being pretty tweaked at apple not letting him use the "mekong" kaleidoscope2 scheme, because they felt they had rights to it, since he started work on it at apple. he always kinda had that stuck under his skin, and he certainly came out publicly against apple when dashboard was announced.
now i guess he can sleep easy on his bed of money.
now this begs the questions: if yahoo! gives the runtime environment for free, will they still give out the mac version for free? and does this mean more widespread acceptance of widgets on the windows side, detracting from one major switching point from windows to mac? (well, i don't think anyone was going to switch from windows to mac because of dashboard, but apple certainly marketed it as such)
Quote:
Yahoo! acquires Konfabulator
July 25 - 06:07 EDT Yahoo! announced today that it has acquired Konfabulator, the popular software developer of widgets -- small desktop applications for monitoring weather, stocks, and more. The deal was finalized late last week for an undisclosed amount. "To help popularize the widgets, Yahoo plans will give away the Konfabulator software that empowers the applications. Konfabulator had been charging $20 for the software. Anyone who bought version 2.0 of the software since mid-May will be given refunds, said Konfabulator CEO Arlo Rose." Yahoo! is "counting on the widgets to make users more curious about certain topics, services or events, ultimately driving more traffic to its Web site so it can serve up more moneymaking ads and expand its current base of 10.1 million subscribers who pay for premium services, said Toni Schneider, vice president of Yahoo!'s developer network.
Yahoo! acquires Konfabulator
July 25 - 06:07 EDT Yahoo! announced today that it has acquired Konfabulator, the popular software developer of widgets -- small desktop applications for monitoring weather, stocks, and more. The deal was finalized late last week for an undisclosed amount. "To help popularize the widgets, Yahoo plans will give away the Konfabulator software that empowers the applications. Konfabulator had been charging $20 for the software. Anyone who bought version 2.0 of the software since mid-May will be given refunds, said Konfabulator CEO Arlo Rose." Yahoo! is "counting on the widgets to make users more curious about certain topics, services or events, ultimately driving more traffic to its Web site so it can serve up more moneymaking ads and expand its current base of 10.1 million subscribers who pay for premium services, said Toni Schneider, vice president of Yahoo!'s developer network.
arlo rose has had a long-standing, well, not "feud" per se, since that would imply that apple returned the favor, but they didn't really care about him. i can't recall if he was fired from apple, or left of his own accord, or irreconcilable differences, but i do remember him being pretty tweaked at apple not letting him use the "mekong" kaleidoscope2 scheme, because they felt they had rights to it, since he started work on it at apple. he always kinda had that stuck under his skin, and he certainly came out publicly against apple when dashboard was announced.
now i guess he can sleep easy on his bed of money.
now this begs the questions: if yahoo! gives the runtime environment for free, will they still give out the mac version for free? and does this mean more widespread acceptance of widgets on the windows side, detracting from one major switching point from windows to mac? (well, i don't think anyone was going to switch from windows to mac because of dashboard, but apple certainly marketed it as such)
Comments
Originally posted by rok
now this begs the questions: if yahoo! gives the runtime environment for free, will they still give out the mac version for free? and does this mean more widespread acceptance of widgets on the windows side, detracting from one major switching point from windows to mac? (well, i don't think anyone was going to switch from windows to mac because of dashboard, but apple certainly marketed it as such)
well, after the initial slashdot-effect on konfabulator.com, it seems that they've finally got a few answers to the first things that popped into my head. and it is a very interesting strategy to get yahoo! content onto the desktops of a lot of people who would otherwise simply not care.
but if it devolved into adware all over the desktop, you migth as well just kill it now.
it will be interesting to see how this affects the windows side of things.
Dashboard comes our and it looks like Konfabulator. Arlo Rose cries bloody murder until Yahoo buys Konfabulator.
Lather rinse repeat. Seems these developers who Apple has "shafted" have done quite well for themselves.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Daring Fireball write-up (http://daringfireball.net/2004/06/da...s_konfabulator) was the inspiration for hawking this around the big content players. People like the BBC (with their backstage.bbc.co.uk stuff) are desperate to get their content in front of people's eyeballs and these widgets are (apparently) the way forward.