Microsoft has opened a blog for what it calls Gadgets, which seem to be much the same as the widgets that Apple copied from (now Yahoo-owned) Konfabulator, though they also hark back to the Active Desktop idea that Microsoft tried in the 90s (it flopped) and even earlier mini-apps.
These particular widgets had been expected for what was then the Longhorn Sidebar, which Microsoft showed in 2002. However, according to the Gadgets blog, they also come in two other flavours: Gadgets for Start.com (aka Web- or Server-based Gadgets); and Gadgets for Windows SideShow (aka Auxilary Display Gadgets). In the last case, the gadget runs on the PC but sends data to another screen, such as a second screen in a notebook PC lid, a PDA or a mobile phone.
The extremely cool but "not officially supported" Start.com site has been running for a while (it was going a couple of months before Google did something similar) and also has its own blog.
