Yahoo said yesterday that it has acquired Pixoria, a three-person software company that makes tools - "Konfabulator Widgets" - that allow computer users to access information via the internet without using a browser, reports the Washington Post. Some think the next version of web use will have such customized information - like RSS feeds - streamed to users' computers rather than relying on browsers to go find it.

At some point, if the speculations pan out, digital advertising as well will have to go to where users are, rather than users going to where the advertising is.

More than 1,000 widgets are now available. They allow users to scrape information, such as stock prices or sports scores, off a website and send it back to the user's desktop. They have been so popular that Apple included similar functionality (called Dashboard) in the Macintosh OS X 10.4 "Tiger," writes PC Mag.

"We think this is where the web is headed in its next generation…we can reach beyond the browser, beyond what we can do in a one-size-fits-all website," said Toni Schneider, vice-president of Yahoo Developer Networks.

Konfabulator CEO Arlo Rose said that the deal will give widget developers "whole new buckets of content" to access, according to PC Pro.

"See, when we first thought of Konfabulator, one of the key pieces was accessing internet content. Well guess what Yahoo has boatloads of? Yup. And what's really great is that they're starting to open it up to everyone in a format that's useable outside the traditional browser, as XML feeds. Guess how they're going to provide real-world examples of how to use this stuff. Yup… Konfabulator."

The software platform will now be known as Yahoo Widgets, although the core engine will still be called Konfabulator for now.

Yahoo did not disclose terms of the deal. Pixoria's three employees will become Yahoo employees.