Widgets are a great concept – the user interface components of Web 2.0, perhaps? Problem: which widgets? Google Desktop? Microsoft Live? Dashboard on the Mac? Konfabulator? Or Netvibes?

Netvibes CEO Tariq Krim reckons he has the answer, announcing at the Future of Web Apps conference in London his Universal Widget API. Not sure exactly how this will work, but the idea is that you write your widget once and it runs everywhere. Dashboard and Google were specifically mentioned, along with “a bunch of others.”

After the announcement he left the stage, then dashed back, grabbed the microphone, and added a promise to support OpenID. More momentum.