Paul F. Olson's Stuff & Nonsense

Who can resist this?

The new feature is close to completion and will be unveiled here later this month. You have not seen it in a desktop browser before...

http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/show.dml/759403

I'm still trying to decide how I feel about widgets.

I know the whole thing is still in the development stage. I know the widget UI is changing with each new weekly (and occasional mid-weekly) build. And I know that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of cool widgets yet to be created. So I'm trying to keep an open mind. After all, I never used any other widget engine before, which means I'm still pretty new to the whole concept. I've only seen a fraction of what widgets can do, and I can scarcely imagine what other nifty creations might be in store. It's entirely possible that, some day, the perfect widget will come along and blow me away with its sheer genius and wonderful practicality. At that point, I'll finally realize why it was so important to have widget support in Opera, and I'll say to myself, "Ah, those crafty Opera developers knew what they were doing all along."

But that day is not here yet, so I'm still trying to figure out if widgets are really a wise use of development resources.

I know I can think of many other things I'd rather be testing right now. An Opera PIM, for example. Or long-overdue enhancement of the e-mail client, so that it finally lives up to its potential. (Note to MS Outlook users. Check out NEO if you want to see what Opera e-mail could truly be some day, what it should be right now).

Not long ago, someone posted a comment in the Weekly Build blog, saying, "Widgets are the answer to a question nobody was asking." I read that, and thought, "Yes! That's it exactly."

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't get past the feeling that widgets are just a marketing ploy, that they're being added so, when Firefox fans say, "Firefox is better because Firefox has extensions," Opera fans can respond, "Oh, yeah? Well, Opera has widgets."

I guess I'll have to wait a little longer before I know how this all shakes out, before I know if my fears are justified or if the developers will make me look like a fool.

In the meantime, things could be worse. At least widgets are fun to play with, and for folks like me, to whom testing is more of a game than a calling, that's not a bad thing at all.

Yes, once again I've been remiss about posting here. There are a few good reasons for that, a few that probably aren't so good, and then the real reason: I've been extremely busy playing around in another corner of the Internet, where I've been working with my old writing and editing partner to create a new site. Check it out, if you have a chance. It's still in the early stages, but we think it's shaping up to be an interesting destination. Soon you'll be able to get free copies of two "classic" short stories, just by signing up for our mailing list. Eventually we expect to load up the site with lots and lots of fiction, podcasts, and other goodies. Stay tuned.

So that's my big news.

The big news around here, of course, was the recent announcement that Opera has started to release weekly builds, allowing everyone to experience the highs, lows and all around fun of testing. What? You missed that announcement? Then don't waste another minute. Go here and read all about it, download this week's build and get busy testing!