In order to make it easy for users to find new gadgets that will run on both the Windows Sidebar and desktop, Microsoft has created a few Web communities. The first is called, appropriately enough, Microsoft Gadgets (http://microsoftgadgets.com/). The second, which is available from the link Get more gadgets online in the Sidebar’s Add Gadgets window, is called Gadgets for Windows Vista (http://gallery.microsoft.com/Results.aspx?vista=landing&rdm=113828&l=1&ti=2)

Actually, you can get three different kinds of gadgets from these web sites, as Microsoft has chosen to port these mini-applications to three distinct environments: Sidebar and the Windows desktop, Live.com (a web portal that’s part of Microsoft’s Windows Live initiative), and Sideshow, an external display that is beginning to appear on new notebook computers and Tablet PCs.

On the Microsoft Gadgets web site,  you can find galleries of downloadable gadgets, a blog written by the Microsoft employees that maintain the site, forums for providing gadget feedback, and other information.

Microsoft Gadgets is an excellent resource for developers wanting to build their own gadgets. The site includes a wealth of information and documentation about building gadgets that work in any or all of the supported environments. If you are a developer, you’ll appreciate the fact that Sidebar is essentially a graphic script hosting environment: All of your skills writing web applications and web sites are transferable to gadget design and development.

There are other online resources for Sidebar gadgets as well. The aforementioned Live.com web portal (http://www.live.com) offers some Sidebar gadgets, although most of that site’s gadgets are obviously designed for Live.com, not Sidebar. And there are many, many thirdparty gadget sites on the Web. There are Google search gadgets, dictionaries, and virtually everything imaginable out there.