I just published a Google gadget that displays a gallery slideshow from msmphotography.com. The gadget format means that it can be added to your iGoogle customized desktop, if you have a Google account; or added to any Web site with a [script] tag.

I've tested it with IE7, IE6, FireFox, and Safari 3, and it works fine--my widget architecture as used on msmphotography is far more sophisticated than Google's, the downside to which being, of course, that mine is more vulnerable to problems in certain browser/computer combinations. So I'm more interested in showing off than testing, though of course I treasure those bug reports...and also because this kind of widget will be a part of the Once and Future HabitableZone Redesign. In that implementation, widgets will remotely represent boards instead of photo galleries, but essentially the same concept of an "outpost" from the site showing up elsewhere on the Net.

I think this widget concept is pretty cool and possibly pretty powerful. It lets you syndicate Web sites out to the Net, and lets people on the Net produce Web pages built out of components like this. Imagine building your own Zone away from Zone with five board widgets, or a virtual art gallery made out of photo widgets. Or?