Widgets have been around for OS X for years now.  It originally began as an application called Konfabulator, which was bought by Yahoo and is now called Yahoo Widget Engine.  Apple is somewhat known for taking ideas from smaller developers and incorporating it into the OS if its a big success with its users.  Apple’s dashboard is pretty much a direct rip off of what was once known as Konfabulator.  Though they did do one thing great.  The took the widgets off the desktop and put them on a hidden layer so that they are accessible only when you want them to be.  Konfabulator also has this option, but that’s besides the point.

I use a combination of Yahoo Widget Engine, and Apple’s dashboard, but I dont think I really take full advantage of what Dashboard has to offer.  Currently the only widgets I have loaded on my Dashboard include:

Stickies: 

Stickes are just little notepads that you can store information on.  I keep an account number there for one of my logins that doesnt allow the browser to save it for security reasons.  Thats about all I keep there.

Business Directory:

Business Directory is basically an online version of the Yellow Pages.  I like to call up my local Randy’s Pizza for some delicious BBQ wings every now and then, and this gets me their phone number with a quickness.

Calculator:

The calculator is a new invention for lazy people that helps you with math.  It eliminates the need for any brain power to be used when solving problems that involve not only addition, but subtraction, division and multiplication.  Wow.  Now thats amazing.

Dashaltics (Google Analytics):

This is a pretty neat little widget that gives you quick and direct access to your Google Analytics account.  It looks great and provides some pretty useful information such as Page views and Visitors for either the current day, a 7 day period, or a 1 year period. You can download Dashaltyics for free.

I feel like there are a lot of great widgets out there that are really handy to have, I just never feel like going out and really looking through them all.  What are some of your favorite widgets that you use?