IBM (NYSE: IBM ) announced that it is the first vendor to bring Google Gadgets™ -- or consumer-style web utilities -- into commercial portal software. Available at no cost to WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Portal Express Version 6.0 customers, IBM now lets users create, customize and use rich Internet applications with Google Gadgets directly from within WebSphere Portal so they appear as ready-to-use services. A corporate portal is best known as a common entry point for business users and consumers who need to share information regardless of where the information resides.

Users can choose from nearly 4,000 Google Gadgets such as language translators, package delivery tracking, Podcast searches, Wikipedia information, YouTube postings and more. These smart features can be easily offered through a company's portal with just a click of a button. By integrating Google Gadgets into WebSphere Portal, IBM is extending the reach of Google's Internet-based resources and adding to the thousands of role-based business-centric portlets that IBM already offers -- such as customer relationship management (CRM), collaboration services, and enterprise resource management available at: http://catalog.lotus.com/wps/portal/portal.

IBM is also announcing its search sitemap utility, based on a new sitemap protocol that will make it possible to optimize publication of portal content for improved search by public search engines. This feature also includes the ability to notify search engines of the update frequency, last modification date, and relative priority of the content that is being published. The end result is an improved content relationship with external search engines so that all of the public content in a portal can be found and crawled efficiently. More information about the Sitemap protocol can be found at: http://www.sitemaps.org/

Google Gadgets and Componentized Websites Session at AJAXWorld
In their first year, Google Gadgets have exploded in popularity, with thousands of gadgets used by tens of millions of users every week, and have become an important distribution platform for content and application providers. This presentation will introduce Google Gadgets, provide an update on the state of the gadgets world, and talk about strategies to leverage this burgeoning eco-system in your work and business.

Speaker Bio: Adam Sah is the architect of Google Gadgets and the Gadget Content Directory. Prior to Google, he was a founding engineer at several startups, among them Inktomi and Sensage, where he is a member of the board. He holds several patents in databases and web systems.

AJAXWorld 2007 East Conference & Expo Receives
The Largest Number of Sponsor Support for Any Web 2.0 Event in 2007!

SYS-CON Events announced the "charter sponsors" of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo 2007 East which includes; Laszlo Systems (Diamond Sponsor), JackBe (Platinum Sponsor), Adobe (Platinum Sponsor), Cynergy (Platinum Sponsor), Backbase (Gold Sponsor) Google (Gold Sponsor), Nexaweb (Gold Sponsor), ICEsoft (Gold Sponsor), Oracle (Gold Sponsor), Helmi Technologies (Gold Sponsor), JetBrains (Gold Sponsor), TIBCO (Gold Sponsor), Kapow Technologies (Gold Sponsor), Sun Microsystems (Silver Sponsor), Parasoft (Silver Sponsor), Servoy (Silver Sponsor), Etelos (Silver Sponsor),  Microsoft (Expo Plus Sponsor),  Lightstreamer (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor),  IT Mill (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), FrogLogic (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), ThinWire (Expo Sponsor), Quasar Tecnologies (Expo Sponsor), Zapatec (Exhibitor Plus Sponsor), MB Technologies Bindows (Exhibitor), OpenSpot (Exhibitor), ILOG (Exhibitor), Passport Corporation (Exhibitor), Manning Publications (AJAX Book Sponsor), Apress (AJAX Book Sponsor), Conference Guru (Media Sponsor), Flash Goddess (Media Sponsor), AJAXWorld Magazine (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), SYS-CON.TV (Media Sponsor), IT Mill (Media Sponsor), Methods & Tools (Media Sponsor), Web 2.0 Journal (Media Sponsor), and OASIS (Association Sponsor).