iGoogling Around

The funky features of iGoogle

by Rupert Sharp
of http://www.oyster-web.co.uk

Last updated: 10 Oct 2007

I decided to have a look at Google's personalised homepage 'iGoogle' yesterday, it was brought to my attention as I spotted someone using it and thought it looked quite snazzy aesthetically but it turned out to be just as functional. iGoogle was launched as an experiment in Google labs before it was released first in May 2005 as Google Personalised Homepage and then upgraded and renamed as iGoogle in April 30th of this year. In essence iGoogle is a more advanced and personalised version of the regular www.google.com/co.uk etc. homepage; instead of the big blank area underneath the search box you get a tab list and storage areas for 'modules' that you can use for an enormous amount of different purposes and a customisable 'theme'. The system is quite similar to Facebook's profile system.

The modules as said are very similar to Facebook in the way you can open/close and move them around and also make them yourself. iGoogle has an enormous collection of user-made modules such as horoscopes and image sharing boxes and also more official modules that include YouTube videos, Outlook, Dilbert cartoons and Yahoo! messenger. Modules can be searched through a menu system when you go to 'add more stuff' where you can search modules by categories such as Tools and Fun and Games. Once you've found one you like you simply need to click 'add' and its added, no agreements or anything, it will then appear in one of the columns on the tab-page you were on when you clicked 'add stuff'. You can customise the layout of your tabs individually; you could have a short column on the left and a large one on the right or just one big column if you want (the default layout is three columns), you can also set different backgrounds for each of them if you wish.

The themes are quite funky. Depending on what theme you choose the background image can change depending on the weather of your current location, the time and so on. I currently have the 'bus stop' background which shows a bunch of people standing at a bus stop, in sunny weather they wear shorts and shirts and in rainy weather they wear scuba diving gear and umbrellas and the sky changes as well, I think it's also affected by the time but I haven't used it at night yet. Rumour has it that at certain times in certain backgrounds you might see strange things such as the Loch Ness Monster appear in the background for a short while.

The great thing about iGoogle is you just have such a wealth of information at your fingertips and it doesn't really slow down loading Google unless you keep modules that require a lot of memory to load open. You can open and shut the modules and iGoogle will remember which ones they were for the next time you log-on. But it gives you all the tools you might need grouped by yourself ready from a central source, like a large online personal organiser. I'm impressed but keep in mind Google enjoy sucking details about what you're doing through their programs so they can advertise to you, so watch what you type into those gadgets and also remember that not all modules are necessarily trustworthy. Otherwise iGoogle is smart but there is one fatal problem; its far too distracting : -P