Google wants to make it as easy as possible for you to place its content, like news feeds, maps and calendars, on your site. Apparently, using the existing APIs wasn't simple enough, so now there's Google Web Elements, for even easier installation of custom Google widgets. Web Elements is starting with eight different modules: Calendar, Conversation, News, Custom Search, Maps, Presentations, Spreadsheets and YouTube News.

Of the eight, Conversation and Custom Search are the two I see actually gaining large userbases. A lot of sites have comments or shoutboxes, and a lot of them already have custom Google Search boxes. Those aren't going anyway any time soon, and it can't hurt that Google's made them so easy to install. Web Elements doesn't seem to be targeted at major sites, but it does offer some features that beginning -- or just time-crunched -- site owners wouldn't build for themselves.