Widget:
Widgets are interactive virtual tools that provide single-purpose services such as showing the user the latest news, the current weather… or even a language translator, among other things. Examples of widget engines include: … Microsoft gadgets in Windows Vista…
Gadgets:
Gadgets are computer programs that provide services without needing an independent application to be launched for each one, but instead run in an environment that manages multiple gadgets and then adds “See: Google Gadgets, Microsoft Gadgets, Apple Widgets.
Difference:
The easiest way to explain it is that gadgets are widgets, but not all widgets are gadgets. Gadgets are a subset of widgets, with the distinctive property of being proprietary. For example, Microsoft Vista has gadgets, which are widgets that work only on Microsoft Vista. Further, Google has their own set of gadgets that users can add to their websites and/or Google desktop. Although Google’s gadgets are technically widgets and they can be used on any website, Google decided to use the term ‘gadget’ to make all of our lives harder :-(
