Now you can share a Google Gadget with your friend and even collaborate with your friends on the same instance of a gadget.  This makes working on a gadget very similar to the Google Docs collaboration system.

Just like you can share and work on a Google Spreadsheet with your friends using the Google Docs platform, you can now share a sticky note gadget containing list of to-do items for a party with your friend and work on it using the iGoogle platform.

This is how the sharing only function works:

1. I have a “Quotes of the Day” Gadget added to my iGoogle page which I want to share with my friends.  I click on the triangle on the top right of the Gadget to open the drop down menu, and click on “Share this Gadget” option.

2. The next screen shows me email addresses from my address book from which I can select the desired address and send the invite to use the application.

The other interesting feature i.e. collaboration on Google Gadgets allows me to not only share the Gadget but also the data which I have saved on it.  I can also set the access levels for the recipients allowing them to only view the gadget or view and edit the gadget.  The collaboration function is not yet available on all the gadgets.  One of the gadgets on which it is available is NY Times Scrabble.  Let’s see how it works:

1. Click on the triangle and then click on “Share this gadget”

2. On the “Send Invite” screen I can select the email address and set the access level for the people as shown inside the area marked with red border.

3. When my friends will access this gadget on their iGoogle page, we both can work together on it.  In order to see the last saved changes, a simple page refresh is required.

For developers who plan to make their gadgets collaborative, Google has given a single line code which needs to be added to the gadgets.  If you gadget requires collaboration, you just need to add this line to the ModulePrefs section of the gadget:

<optional feature=”shareable-prefs”>

Which of the available gadgets you can think of which will make more sense with collaboration option added to them.

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