The rumors were true. Microsoft plans to support internet widgets in Windows Mobile 6.5.Widgets are basically bits of internet code that can run like native apps on your mobile phone. In other words, rather than launching a program that's taking up space on your mobile device or loading a web browser and then navigating to a web page, you'll be able to just click a button and launch a web service in a standalone window.

You can already use these types of widgets on desktop computer operating systems, the iPhone, or the upcoming Palm Pre with WebOS. Windows Mobile 6.5 support could make it a lot easier for developers to create web apps that will run on multiple platforms with minor modifications. Instead of developing for the iPhone, Windows Mobile, OS X, Windows 7, and so on, they'll be able to develop for the web and make sure their apps are compliant with the widget engines on each platform.

Right now, Microsoft is showing off screen shots of a few sample widgets for Live Search, stocks, and weather. More information will be available to developers in April.