These gadgets are designed to come in handy at work (to-do list, currency converter, calendar), at school (calculator, Wikipedia, translation tool), or just passing time (news, blogs, games), Kasia Chmielinski of Google told Macsimum News.

Here are some examples of cross-platform Gadgets:

[url=http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/youtubevideo.html?hl=en]YouTube[/url] -- you can search and watch YouTube videos from Dashboard

[url=http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/flower.html?hl=en]Virtual Flower Pot[/url] -- you can water it and watch the flowers bloom

[url=http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/terrarium.html?hl=en]Weather Globe[/url], which displays weather conditions inside a 3D glass sphere

For users, this means they can install [url=http://www.google.com/ig/directory?synd=open]hundreds of Google Gadgets[/url] with just one click and run them in Dashboard. They can also use Gadgets to enhance their personal web sites by copying and-pasting the HTML into the page's source code.

From a gadget developer's perspective, the Google Gadgets API allows them to create one set of gadgets that will work on both Mac and PC platforms eliminating the need to create gadgets for both platforms, Chmielinksi said.