With the advent of easily personalized home pages on the web widgets has emerged as a new growth industry. Wikipedia defines a widget as follows :

In computer software, a widget engine is host software system for physically inspired applets on the desktop (desktop widgets). Originally, desk accessories were developed to provide a small degree of multitasking, but when real multitasking OSes became available, these were replaced by normal applications. However, the widget model is attractive because of ease of development. Most widgets can be created with a few images and from less than ten to several hundred lines of XML/JavaScript/VBScript, depending on their complexity.

Widgets are now available for both desktop and mobile phone platforms.

Reference Material

The Year of the Widget? by Brain Braiker

Widgets 1.0 : working draft by W3C to standardize widgets

Widgipedia : directory of widgets

Widgets Live! wrap up by Niall Kennedy

Widgetbox : directory of widgets for the web

The dawn of the Widget Widget Web by Ajit Jaokar

Employers take widgets to work by Om Malik

Widgetsphere : New Playground for Marketers by Graeme Thickins

Web 2.0 Expo : All things widgets by Sean Ammirati

Washington Post gets MuseStorm widgets by Vivek Puri

Advertiser widgets bump into MySpace Roadblock by Brian Morrissey

Slide largest widget maker on the Web? by Matt Marshall

Widget makers for the stars by Alexandra Berzon

The next small thing by Business Week

Widget Summit 2007 October 15-16 @ UCSF, Mission Bay, SF

Widgets make a big splash on the Net by Jon Swartz

RockYou climbing past Slide to become number one widget-maker? by Eric Eldon

Slide : The $500 Million Widget by Sarah Lacy

Building a brand with widgets by Rachael King

Widget Providers

AmnestyWidgets : widget applications, tools and utilities

Clearspring : Services for building, deploying and tracking widgets

Dashboard : Mac widget

Firefoxit : Widget extension for Firefox browser

Gigya : widget distribution network

Homepage Content : Google widgets

Lookery : ad network for Facebook apps

MuseStorm : Widget syndication service

Openwave : Mobile widgets

Opera widgets : Mobile widgets

SocialMedia : widget developer, hosting provider and ad network

SpringWidgets : Web and Desktop widget engine

Sprout : online WYSIWYG editor for flash

Tumri : Integrated merchandising and advertising network

WidSets : mobilize your web

Y! Widgets : Yahoo widgets

Y! Widget Workshop : create your own widget

yourminis : widgets for your blog / personal site