Google Personalized Homepage, formerly google.com/ig, has switched it’s identity to iGoogle and is pushing big improvements on gadgets and localization. iGoogle now features personal gadget creation that’s no more complicated than filling out a form, and has made it’s previously U.S.-only themes available worldwide.
iGoogle is pursuing new users by pushing a custom, simplified, shareable gadget platform. Gadgets are mini programs that sit on your personalized homepage and each perform one simple task, such as displaying a photo every day, or fetching your latest e-mails from your GMail inbox. iGoogle users can add gadgets already stocked by Google, ones created by their friends, or even go so far as to build their own with iGoogle’s simplified, form-based gadget creator.
Writing a Framed Photo gadget asks you to fill in the addresses of each photo in your rotation, and then select how often the rotation should change.
iGoogle’s Twitter-esque Daily Me gadget asks you to fill in the address of your photo, and then complete a few forms with your current “status”, so your friends will know what you’re up to and what’s on your mind.
Once your gadgets are created, they can be sent to anyone else in your community. Your daily photos can rotate on your parents’ homepages, and your daily status can be broadcast to all your friends.
iGoogle is chasing the international market by adding a complete set of localization features. Themes for the Google Personalized Homepage that were previously limited to the U.S. are now available in 22 languages worldwide.
Google’s move to iGoogle demonstrates how serious Google is about expanding into the large “personalized homepage” market, which is crowded with other big players like Pageflakes and My Yahoo. Not only does Google want to be your first stop for web searches, news, and finance, but now the first thing you see when you start up your web browser.
Source: You’ve got gadget mail, Official Google Blog.
