We haven’t updated you recently with news, but it doesn’t mean there’s nothing new – we’ve just been totally focused on our new tool for you! Meet the AppsGeyser – a platform for building Android apps from any web content.

AppsGeyser works the same way as Desktopify. You can clip any content or use any widget code. By following just 2 easy steps, you’ll create a native Android app that you can submit to Android market. You can use your existing widget code to build your app with AppsGeyser – or try something completely new.

Reach millions of Android users with your new apps!

Great news! We added a new tab in the Dashboard – Distribute. Now you can easily publish your widgets in galleries and archives. Distributing your widgets brings new users and traffic to your website.

Log in to your dashboard and open the Distribute tab. You’ll see two options: “Submit to Galleries” and “Submit to download archives”.

Choose “Submit to Galleries” to submit your widget to three widget galleries:

· Desktopify gallery

· Live Gallery

· Widgipedia

You can also submit your widget to download archives. These are catalogs where people search for applications, games, and utilities. Follow the instructions provided to submit your widget to these archives. You can submit your Windows Gadget and Standalone Windows Widget as well.

While submitting your widget to galleries and archives, don’t forget about SEO. Publishing your widgets on high Page Ranked archives has a great impact on your SEO. Your widget could be on top in Google by using carefully chosen keywords. Research your targeted keywords and use them in the widget’s title, description, and tags while submitting.

The Distribute tab is not the only feature we recently added. Here are some more:

1. Mac Dashboard Widgets support
Instead of stand-alone Mac Widgets, Dashboard Widgets are created. Now your Widgets work like any other widget with the MacOS X Dashboard.

2. iGoogle, Netvibes, and Widget box widgets support
Easily convert your iGoogle, Netvibes and Widgetbox widgets. Now Desktopify fully supports these widgets – just paste a code.

3. One account for many widgets
You can now have more than one widget on one account. Just sign in with your login/password to add new widgets to your account.

Today we release our API. If you have an application that works with any content, now you can make desktop widgets right in your application.

It’s simple:

1. Register as a developer to get your API key and documentation.

2. Integrate your application with Desktopify, using the API.

3. Offer your users the ability to create desktop widgets without leaving your application.

How it works:

1. Your application sends content using the API.

2. Desktopify returns links to desktop gadgets made from this content.

It’s just a bit over a month since we launched, and we’ve already had many mentions in various online media and blogs.

We’d like to thank all of you who have reviewed and are using our service. Thank you for your support, for your time, and for your good words. They support and encourage us to make this service even better and bring you a lot more great features.

Here’s some of the buzz about Desktopify in on-line media:

  Killerstartups: Building Widgets Intuitively

“The Desktopify site will let you carry out a very concise task, namely building desktop widgets in an easy and uncluttered way.”

“It is an almost foolproof way of ensuring that your content and information will be reachable at all times.”

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Makeuseof: Make Desktop Widgets from Web Widgets

“Desktopify can be especially useful for webmasters since you can send alerts for users who have installed your widget on their desktops. With this tool, you can use HTML, Javascript and Flash and you do not need to learn how to create a desktop widget.”

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Widgets Lab: Use Desktopify to put web widgets on your Desktop

“Desktopify adds an easy way for businesses to get their already existing widgets onto your desktop with minimal work and no coding or lengthy submission process.”

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 Devil’s Workshop: Convert web widgets into desktop widgets

“Great idea if you are running a web service as you can use this to create your own desktop widget and prompt your visitors to use a Desktop Widget. It is quite handy as it also allows sending updates, messages and also monitors stats for the number of people using the widget.”

“I personally liked the ease with which I could create widgets and put them up on mydesktop. Desktopify also has a bookmark-let which allows creating any block of a website into a desktop gadget.”

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PresseCitron: Convert web widgets into desktop widgets with Desktopify (in French)

“Desktopify allows you to turn a web widget into a desktop widget very easily in just a few clicks.”

“Why? Just keep an eye on information that interests you and display it permanently on your desktop while you’re busy with other tasks, without launching a browser and entering a URL.”

“Desktopify offers other features including a widgets gallery, a dashboard that lets you manage your widgets, statistics, and even an alerting system that lets you send a direct message to all who have downloaded your widget. Make an attractive, sexy widget that can be downloaded hundreds of times.”

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Geekissimo: Desktopify, convert online widgets for your desktop applications (In Italian)

“In a few simple words: you can convert the widgets of various webservices into a desktop application for Windows and Mac . Quickly, easily, and free.”

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Wwwhat’s new: Convert web widgets into desktop widgets (in Spanish)

“If you prefer to have widgets with news and information installed on your desktop instead of in your netvibes or iGoogle dashboard, then desktopify.com can make your life easier.”

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Globedia: Convert web widgets into desktop widgets (In Spanish)

“If you are someone who likes to use desktop widgets rather than Web services online, you’ll love Desktopify – a service that converts web widgets into desktop applications.”

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TuttoVolume: Desktopify turns widgets and websites for mobile applications for the Desktop. (in Italian)

“For some tasks there are many of us who still prefer to use a desktop client or widget rather than a browser. Desktopify is a very interesting service that lets you convert widgets for various sites and web services to the desktop.”

“The tool is very easy to use. Just open the Desktopify site, paste the widget code, and fill in the name, description, and size of the widget.”

“Desktopify is a free service that I believe many of you will learn to love.”

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webAdictos: Convert web widgets to desktop (in Spanish)

Desktopify is ideal for webmasters who want to distribute their web widgets to Windows and Mac desktops. Best of all, you don’t need to install any toolbars or anything else in order to run the widgets you’ll convert.”

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HomePC : Desktopify (in Russian)

“The scope of this service is very wide – from all sorts of news and weather tickers to various Flash games.”

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IKUBON: Web services to desktop (in Japanese)

“With a little knowledge of JavaScript, you can easily create your own widget for Desktopify. This is more convenient than Yahoo! Widgets. I think Desktopify is killer.”

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電腦玩物 : Convert web widget to the desktop (in Chinese)

“The web and social networks are increasingly integrated into our lives, and you can improve your efficiency by working with them in a more convenient way: by putting them on the desktop.”

“In addition, Desktopify widgets have smooth performance. I tested memory and CPU usage for a long time and it’s very stable.

“If you want to bring web and social interaction to your desktop then Desktopify is indeed a commendable conversion tool that converts web content into the desktop widgets.”

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Today we’ve launched Desktopify bookmarklet – a browser plug-in that allows you to convert any website content to a desktop widget.

Simple to install

Bookmarklet is easy to install. You don’t need to run anything – just open this page and drag the Desktopify button to your browser links toolbar.

Simple to convert

While browsing, find useful content on a website. For example:

· A news block

· Charts

· Radio

· A Web application

· A Flash game

Just click the Desktopify button on your links toolbar, the select the website block containing the content, and click “Desktopify”. You’ll be forwarded to a widget creation wizard with prepared data. Just fill out the form and you’ll get the widget!

Check out this one-minute video to get the idea.

In the last post we got our web widget and converted it. Now we’re ready to install the widget.

We have 3 options for installing the widget. We can install:

• A stand-alone desktop widget , that runs on all Windows platforms (XP, Vista, Windows 7)
• A Windows 7 gadget
• A stand-alone desktop widget for Mac

Let’s first install a stand-alone desktop widget.

First, download the widget and run it. The widget installs the same as any Windows application. After clicking on it, the install wizard will launch. Just click the Next button to install. On the final step of the Wizard, you’ll have the options to run this widget right now and start the widget every time Windows starts up.

Now your widget installed. Notice that the widget looks almost identical to how it looked on the web page. Also notice a small control panel that appears when you move your mouse over the widget. This panel is very small and doesn’t occupy too much space on your desktop. You’ll also see two buttons and a “draggable” area on this panel. If you want to drag widget across the desktop, point your mouse on this area and drag the widget. The close button minimizes the widget to the system tray, and the pin button pins your widget over all other windows.

While the widget is running, it places a small icon on the system tray. You can change this icon (and the application icon) to display your own image when you convert the widget (remember the Icon option on the first step). Finally, if you right-click on this icon, the widget’s menu is displayed. 

Now let’s install a Windows 7 gadget. Download the gadget, then click on it, and you’ll be prompted to install the gadget. Click the Install button and your gadget will appear on the desktop. Also, the gadget will be added to your Gadgets folder. The gadget starts in minimized view. Maximize the gadget to start it. Your gadget has standard gadget controls, similar to any Windows 7 gadget, and looks similar to most stand-alone gadgets.

If we install the widget on a Mac, we’ll see the same stand-alone widget as on Windows, with the same small control panel and system tray icon, and the same options.

Let’s create a widget, that’s quick and easy. I like BBC TV and Radio programmes, so I’ll use a BBC widget as a sample for this tutorial.

Get a widget code

The BBC World Service widget is located here. This page contains a widget code that you can paste into any HTML page – for example, your blog. There’s also a preview of this widget.

All we need here is the widget code.

Start the wizard

Now we open the Desktopify wizard. Just follow this URL. Since we have a widget code, we choose the  option “I have the code of a web widget”. Click Submit, and move to step 2.

Set widget options

This is the main step where you set options for your widget. First, copy the widget code from the BBC website and paste in this field of the form. Once you’ve pasted the code, the widget appears in the preview area, so you can check how your widget looks.

Now name the widget. We’ll give it name “BBC World Service”.  Next, set the width and height. We this one to 300×460. You can set a different size and check the preview area to see if it fits or not. Also, provide small description. This description will appear in the widget gallery and on the widget download page.

Here’s an option to choose an icon. You can leave the  default icon or upload your own. If you want to upload your own icon – you need to provide the image file in ICO format.

Another option here is for a thumbnail. If you skip this option your widget will appear in the gallery with a placeholder instead of a screenshot. If you want to upload a thumbnail for your widget, you can quickly create one. Make a screenshot of your web widget, open Paint, and paste your screenshot. Your screenshot will include the whole screen, so you need to crop the image to show just your widget. That’s it. Now save your screenshot as a JPEG. You can also save it as GIF, PNG or BMP file. Now you can upload your thumbnail.

The last option here is Category. You only need to fill out this field if you want publish your widget in the gallery. If you do, then choose the appropriate category and click Submit.

Provide personal details

And now the final step. In this step you need to provide personal details. Just fill out the fields, and after you click Submit, your desktop widgets will be generated.

Promote your widget

You’ll also now have access to your Dashboard. The Dashboard is a place where you can manage your widget. All details on how to access the Dashboard will be provided in an email to you.

To effectively promote your new desktop widget, you’ll be provided with a widget download page, which you can share with your users. On this page your users can preview how your widget looks, and download a stand-alone desktop widget for Windows (by default), a Windows 7 gadget, or a Mac gadget. There is also an option for users to share this widget on a blog or social network. 

Now this desktop widget is ready to install and share.

Finally, on the 3^rd of March we launched our new product – Desktopify. Desktopify is a web platform that allows webmasters to convert web widgets to desktop widgets.

Why did we create Desktopify? For a long time we had only the desktop interface but with Web 2.0 technologies coming to our world and taking a bit of the desktop market, everything changed. There’s the desktop and the web now – and a big gap divides them. People like web technologies for their real-time and sharing capabilities, and the ability to access them anywhere in the world. But the desktop interface is still more user friendly.

Desktopify is the bridge between the web and desktop worlds, connecting them together. If you have a website or web service, bringing it to desktop will give you obvious benefits. When you’re always on your users’ desktop, your information is more accessible and comfortable for your users. Just think . . . they don’t need to run a browser, choose your website from bookmarks, and dig deep or wait for data they need. It’s at their fingertips.

For example, let’s say you’re a user who has a website. Ok, you need to monitor and check statistics, and web-based statistics are very common now. So you open a web browser, launch your analytical software’s website, and then dig down deep to tab you need. For most webmasters getting traffic and goals statistics is vital. Now, with Desktopify, your analytical software can put traffic and goal statistics right on your desktop and update it in real-time. And you guessed it – this saves a lot of time!

Uses like this are the main idea behind the Desktopify. We help webmasters put the most important or popular information right on the desktop, where it’s highly accessible and easy to use – making the web an even more convenient tool. And, of course, it helps sticks user to the web site and build brand loyalty along the way.