David Chartier over at TUAW points to a new Dashboard/Yahoo widget by the good “volks” at Volkswagen. The Rabbit-specific widget “lists free public events in over a dozen cities.” Enter your zip, and whenever you hit that amazing F12 key, up come the admission-free thrillers sure to impress the girlfriend.

As David points out, “a widget like this that helps promote a German car doesn’t make much sense.” I’d tend to agree with him on this one. Free events are nice, but it’s questionable as far as how this ties into the Rabbit.

However, there’s a ton of potential for this idea, especially when it comes to the political arena. Instead of hoping that constituents remember Meetup days, hoping they log back onto My.Barack, hoping they don’t ignore your e-mail, or hoping they know exactly when to tune in to an exclusive news segment, a handy-dandy widget can help to serve as a friendly, non-invasive reminder.

The Edwards camp experimented with a news widget, but I found that it wasn’t updated as much, and there was really little need for this. Most people would choose RSS over something like this, mainly for “minimalist” reasons. But there’s no question that an event-specific widget would prove useful and convenient to potential voters.

What other company-specific widgets exist out there, and how useful and appropriate do you think they are?

Technorati Tags: VW, Volkswagen, Rabbit, widget, Dashboard, gadget, RSS, John Edwards, politics, Meetup