> Hey everyone!

> I'm proud to announce "Gadget-to-Gadget Communication", otherwise
> known as PubSub, which is a killer new beta feature that's currently
> available for you all to try out!

> ====
> What is "Gadget-to-Gadget Communication", a.k.a. PubSub?

> PubSub allows multiple gadgets on the same page to send and receive
> data from each other.  In other words, you can now build a gadget that
> communicates back and forth with one another.  This introduces a brand
> new concept and strategy involved when writing gadgets.  Information
> is no longer constrained to fit inside a single gadget.  Instead, you
> can now split up various pieces of information amongst multiple
> gadgets and allow them to communicate with each other to paint a
> bigger picture.  Gadgets now have the ability to be more closely
> integrated with one another and present a network of information to
> users.  If users only care about one particular segment, they can
> simply remove or minimize any gadgets containing extraneous
> information that they don't care about.

> ====
> How does PubSub work?

> PubSub is a new framework which allows 'publisher' gadgets on iGoogle
> to communicate changes to 'subscriber' gadgets that have declared
> interest in those changes.  This is currently available only on
> iGoogle and publisher/subscriber gadgets must be on the same page.
> For a list of current issues and limitations, see more information
> below.

> Here's documentation on how to get to started:
> http://www.google.com/apis/gadgets/pubsub.html

> Here's an iGoogle tab you can add to quickly see some simple examples:

> http://www.google.com/ig/sharetab?source=stb&atr=PubSub&n_32=url%3Dht...

> *Note:* As a beta feature, documentation on PubSub is not currently
> linked to from the Google Gadgets API developer guide or anywhere
> else.

> ====
> What's a BETA-feature?

> It's an early release of a feature in order get valuable feedback from
> real gadget developers (all of you) about the current design along
> with some ideas on how to make it better.  We can't promise that you
> won't encounter any bugs since it's still a beta.  However, when any
> changes arise, we'll notify everyone about the change by posting it to
> this thread.  We're thrilled to hear your opinions on the design as
> well as any creative ideas on how to use it.  If you have any
> questions or comments, please let us know.

> In the meantime, here's the current list of limitations and known
> issues:
> -- Need more practical examples.  Coming soon.
> -- Does not work in Safari.  Works correctly in Firefox and IE.
> -- Only works in iGoogle.  Does not work on third-party websites or
> other container pages such as Google Desktop.
> -- Only available to type="html" and type="html-inline" gadgets.
> -- Does not work consistently when multiple inlined (type="html-
> inline") "subscriber" gadgets exist on the same page in iGoogle.
> -- Moving (drag/dropping) a "subscriber" gadget to a different
> position in iGoogle creates an error.  PubSub ceases to work
> afterwards.
> -- The "finance_symbol" channel described in the documentation is
> currently broken.
> -- Publisher gadgets cannot pass empty strings to subscriber gadgets.
> -- JavaScript error is sometimes thrown when loading gadgets on
> iGoogle.
> -- Browser 'Stop' buttons sometimes have strange flickering behavior.

> ====

> As always, please reply back with any feedback or comments you may
> have.  We'd love to hear from you!

> Have fun!

> Dann