yes I have used those widgets since way before Yahoo took them over. I use several on my windows computers, I have them locked to my desktop but you can set them to float or however you want them. the ones I find most useful for me are cpu meters, memory meters, weather widgets, sticky notes, clocks, there are tons of widgets in a lot of categories. They are just simple little programs that run and don't use much in the way of resources but can be very helpful. It would definitely depend on the individual to decide if they would be advantageous or not.
On my linux box there are linux versions of widgets and I do have a few of those mostly the ones that allow me to keep watch on my cpu usage and memory usage.
For the yahoo ones you get them here
Yahoo! Widgets
What's a Widget?
Installing Yahoo! Widgets

I reviewed the Yahoo most popular ones and gave up after several pages yielded nothing obvious of use.

I thought some of those widgets that "measure/meter things" would duplicate existing software already in the o/s. Is the item being measured/meter-ed a different item then, ravencajun?

An obvious example for me was the clock widgets where I could not figure out a need for them since the Start Bar displays the date/time already and quite easily.

But the sticky notes that you suggested has me curious... I have had many A-HA! times when I remember something that I later forgot. An electronic equivalent to the yellow sticky papers might be something quite useful. Will ck that one out, ravencajun.

no measurement is same but it is easily visible right on my desktop with out having to do any keystrokes to get to view the info, also if you have a problem with some program that starts using high cpu having the widget float on top lets you have a constant view to watch, I just personally like the ease.

the sticky note ones are yes the electronic equivalent to the yellow sticky notes and are quite helpful especially in my old age LOL

I like the clock because I can have a nice big one that I can see very easily and I also have a calendar one I use quite a lot looks just like a regular paper calendar on my desktop saves me having to go digging for mine.
Really they are just little convenience items.
Some allow you to play music, view video, play games etc.

One thing I like about my linux desktop is that I can add little extras right to my bottom task bar including a cpu and memory meter, weather, aquarium, which you can see down there in my snapshot of my desktop
{{gwi:1444863}}
click to enlarge.

Hee hee hee! I love your, er, golf course (?)

I fooled around with them for awhile after using the sidebar on vista, I sorta missed having something along the side in XP, so I downloaded a few of the obvious ones like clock, weather, meter, calendar.

I eventually tired of them and removed.
I still miss having the clock and calendar.
It was always nice getting up in the morning, going to the computer and knowing what the date was.

Clock and calender on vista: Yikes it's getting late and look at the date already time flies....

{{gwi:1444864}}

Joe, that's cool.
You have your TaskBar on the top, never seen that before.
Unless those are desktop icons and you have the taskbar hidden.
LMK,
Thanks
Randy

That's called a docking station on top, I used the snipping tool in vista to capture the screen and forgot to include the Task bar.

The docking station is actually is a yahoo widget and runs in the background.

O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [RocketDock] "C:\Program Files\RocketDock\RocketDock.exe"

Above is the docking station as shown running in hijackthis program....

Link rocketdock, I guess it is not yahoo I have so much between several machines hard to keep tract, anyway link for rocketdock

Here is a link that might be useful: rocketdock

Alright, thank you man.
Looks like a nifty little tool.
I hate cluttered desktops.