I have been messing with Google Gadgets for a couple of years. It’s a nifty idea without a doubt but most of the time you need to be a developer to get them to do anything cool. For those of you who are not developers and want a widget to stick on your site or (even better) someone else’s, take a good look at Widgetbox.

First, what’s a widget? A widget, or gadget, is a stand-alone application that sits on your website or desktop. Often they are used to display RSS feeds, show the weather or display a form. They can be as simple as a few lines of text or as complex as a fully functional game. Google Gadgets, Yahoo Widgets, and Apple Dashboard Widgets are common examples but others are getting into the act.

I recently looked at a few alternatives such as Clearspring, Springwidgets, and Widgetbox for a friend with a website. He wanted to customize the widget to do more than just display trivial tweets but didn’t know much about programming. He had two choices, pay someone to do it or go with Widgetbox which gives you a lot of customization options. Clearspring and Springwidgets don’t offer much to a novice. However, developers take note, Clearspring and Springwidgets look like solid widget platforms in their own right.

One drawback. Widgetbox is not free. It’s $4 a month or $30 a year. That’s not much, BUT it’s cheaper than hiring a developer.