AOL Video Gadget (for Vista Sidebar)

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET Staff on December 05, 2008

AOL's Video Gadget streams video content directly to your desktop through the sidebar dock. The tiny screen can be enlarged to a reasonable viewing size, like most Vista gadgets, with a single click.

Like most sidebar gadgets, this one is small. But it also crams a lot of functionality into its tiny frame. There's a link to the AOL Video Web site on the top-left. On the top-right, there's an icon to e-mail the current clip to a friend and a color wheel to choose among 12 skins. Mousing over the main screen reveals a panel to pause the video, adjust and mute the volume, watch the previous clip, browse categories, and skip to the next clip. Below that is a ticker scrolling the clip name. The gadget doesn't look cluttered and the layout is pleasantly intuitive.

Each of the five video categories contains 10 clips. News and Business show a smattering of U.S. and international stories, ranging from hard stories to tech and stocks to "Tree robs bank" goofiness. Movies only shows trailers, Comedy has funny shorts, and Music plays music ads--uh, music videos. Unfortunately, you can't record or save the video, nor is the queue adjustable by the user. It's useful if you like streaming video, but there's definitely room for improvement.