I was reading over the Google Blog regarding a new feature that allows you to add any gadget by pasting in the URL of its XML spec file (e.g. http://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml). I tested the feature and found that you can’t edit the Gadget settings within Gmail.  So, I hacked a quick Gmail Gadget.

What I needed was a way to monitor several Twitter RSS feeds within Gmail, by using the new Gadget feature.  Doing so allows me to monitor any conversation topic that I’m interested in right from Gmail.

I decided to use xFruits.com and added several Twitter query feeds for the words “addster”, “tweeple” and “twitter friends”.  By using xFruits, I can add or remove keywords to the feed without recompiling the Gadget.

I added the Gadget to Gmail (from the settings tab) and to iGoogle and now I have a quick way to listen in on any Tweets.

If you want to hack your own, here’s the XML link that you can download and change the feed URL:

http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/115774797726329815586/addster-keyword-monitor.xml

And, here’s the webpage Gadget:

Graph Gear allows you to quickly render a customizable interaction graph that is described by a graph xml file. All you need to do is embed it in your page and pass the xml over javascript. It provides nice interactive capabilities and a force directed layout. The code is editable and compilable with MTASC, and it also features a javascript api to control graph interactions.

Since it’s based on XML, you can extend this to include triples N3 or RDF graph visualization.

Source: http://www.creativesynthesis.net/blog/?page_id=60