Oslo, Norway – July 19, 2006
Opera Software today unveiled Opera Widgetize!, a new free servicethat allows anyone, anywhere to create their own desktop widgets withjust a few mouse clicks. Currently available for RSS and ATOM feeds,Opera Widgetize! lets anyone publish custom widgets for their blog orWeb site so visitors can keep up to date with the latest posts and stories.
Using Opera Widgetize! is easy. Simply name your widget, enter the address of the site you wish to create the widget for, choose how you want it to look and voila, you have a completely customized widget in seconds. Opera Widgetize! is available now at http://widgets.opera.com/widgetize/.
Opera Widgetize! also includes features for content producers – bloggers, news services, etc – to distribute the widget on their website. When designing a widget, Opera Widgetize! automatically creates a link and buttons to place on the blog or Web page. The widget itself is stored on Opera’s servers and visitors will then be able to download the custom widget directly.
“Many of our users wanted to create their own widgets, but didn’t want to spend hours learning how to code,” said HÃ¥kon Wium Lie, Chief Technology Officer, Opera Software. “So we created a service that does all the work for them. It’s the easiest way to have all the fun of widgets without all the hassle.”
Although it will work with any site that provides a feed, Opera Widgetize! has been optimized to work with some of the most popular social sites including Yahoo! 360, Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, MSN Spaces, WordPress and Opera’s own community site, My Opera. Although immediately available for RSS and ATOM feeds, support for different widgets will be added soon.