Ever since Gmail came out with their tasks feature I’ve loved it. For my limited use, its simple, easy and usable. If you are using OS X, here is a quick way to create a dashboard widget. All you need is Safari, both versions 3 and 4 will work in the manner detailed below.

1. Launch Safari and open preferences.
2. Select the ‘Advanced’ tab, check the ‘Show Develop menu in menu bar’ option and then close the window.
3. Open a new tab in safari and select the ‘Develop’ menu. Navigate to ‘User agent’ > Mobile Safari 2.2.1 – iPhone
4. Back to your tab, now go to http://gmail.com/tasks. Log in with your gmail account and you should see the layout just as you would on the iphone.
5. If you have the tool button for dashboard (it’s the one with the scissors) on safari enabled use that or go to File > Open in Dashboard
6. Select the area your want to see in the widget and click ‘Add’ on the top right. The dashboard should open with the widget now. That’s it!

This widget is fully functional. You can add lists, create tasks etc. Everything you can do on the iphone you can do here. If however you want the desktop version of this then replace the url with “http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig”. Here you have to resize the window first and then repeat step 5 and 6.

UPDATE: Google Apps customers should use the url ‘http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/<your-doman-name>/iphone’.