I read yesterday’s NYTimes article about Widgets and I don’t understand what the hubbub is all about. Widgets are simply a new way of extending web-based services to the desktop and webpages. The most interesting part of widgets, which is unfortunately ignored in the article, is that they represent a new paradigm for user interaction in the browser and on the desktop. The other interesting part of widgets are the web services behind them, but that’s obviously a story that’s already been well covered (heard of Web 2.0? :-)) The suggestion that people will suddenly start paying subscription fees for widgets is silly — yes, people might start paying for services and those services might include widgets, yes. Widgets being the driving factor being those subscription fees… personally, I don’t think so.