Slashdot Mirror


Google's New Personalized Homepage

jgaynor writes "Citing user requests to coalesce its disparate services, Google today released its new personalized homepage service. It allows you to arrange your Gmail, Google News, Google Maps driving directions, weather and a few select news services (including Slashdot) on a single page. Future plans include Universal RSS support. Clearly a shot at existing services like My Yahoo."

305 of 411 comments (clear)

  1. It was just about time by puiahappy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was waiting for this moment for a lot of time. Google have so many features, but it was missing the page that put them all together. Have a directory, stock market feeds, dedicate search for Linux, email, free blog and lots more ... Oh yeah and don`t forget about google adsense and adwords

    --
    Think like a hacker, act like a hacker, but never become a hacker !
    1. Re:It was just about time by Omnieiunium · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have to agree. I would love to be able access all that information on my homepage. I visit Slashdot, GMail, and Google about 100000 times a day so it would be nice with them all in one little place. I hail the Google-Overlords.

    2. Re:It was just about time by yoder · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I've been waiting for this as well. Even though it does take longer for the page to load, it still beats the hell out of Yahoo and Netscape's portals. And I can still use the old plain page if I want.

      --
      "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
  2. One page to rule them all... by null+etc. · · Score: 4, Funny
    One page to bind them.

    Seriously, I guess Google just got a new lease on life, considering it's supposed to die in 5 years, according to Microsoft.

    1. Re:One page to rule them all... by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, Microsoft at least it already has a aquivalent with a javascript RSS reader and everything, so Microsoft seems to be "ahead" in this case: http://www.start.com/1/

    2. Re:One page to rule them all... by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh and http://www.start.com/2/default.aspx for the version 2, etc

    3. Re:One page to rule them all... by mesach · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually I thought it should read

      and in the whitespace bind them.

      --
      moo.
    4. Re:One page to rule them all... by tomato39 · · Score: 1

      *gets slashdot account* I am not an anonymous coward. Manipulative little computer nerds. ^_^

    5. Re:One page to rule them all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Greetings! you've been assimilated.

    6. Re:One page to rule them all... by Valiss · · Score: 1

      Except those windows are dragable like the ones on the Google personailzed page.

      --

      -Valiss
    7. Re:One page to rule them all... by killjoe · · Score: 1

      Actually I am a little disapointed. What I have on my home pages are the following.

      Numerous links to web sites I visit often.
      Weather from the three cities.
      Time at four locations around the world.

      For RSS feeds I use the firebird live bookmarks.

      So Google doesn't really offer me anything I can't whip up in five minues with HTML.

      --
      evil is as evil does
    8. Re:One page to rule them all... by sathia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      i think they should call it "own page", sounds like "home page" but it's your own page.

      --
      one bug, one crash
    9. Re:One page to rule them all... by hostyle · · Score: 1

      WTF? Right at the bottom:

      View your favorites on other computers/browsers with this link:

      <a href="http://www.start.com/2/default.aspx?u=461a58 7d-3099-4c86-939b-fb01ba05470af4b3afbc-2428-443d-9 d1f-2eb0c4428756">http://www.start.com/2/default.a spx?u=461a587d-3099-4c86-939b-fb01ba05470af4b3afbc -2428-443d-9d1f-2eb0c4428756</a>

      How thoughtful, and such a memorable URI ...

      --
      Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
    10. Re:One page to rule them all... by emilymildew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Do ANY of these "portal" sites offer something that we can't all whip up in a few minutes with HTML/CSS?

      I'm very glad you can do better; some people would prefer to spend their time using the information rather than getting things set up to see it. That isn't meant to be mean.

    11. Re:One page to rule them all... by Mythrix · · Score: 1

      Are those two supposed to not go past the "Loading..." message? If not, they're both broken in Opera. While Google's page works, even with dragging! I was actually slightly surprised about that, since Google Desktop Search doesn't seem to fully support Opera yet.

    12. Re:One page to rule them all... by killjoe · · Score: 1

      "I'm very glad you can do better; some people would prefer to spend their time using the information rather than getting things set up to see it."

      You missed my point entirely didn't you. Let me repeat it. Google does not allow me to see the information I want therefore I have to do it myself. Is that more clear?

      Specifically. I want the weather in more then one location, I want the time in more then one location, I want more RSS feeds then slashdot or bbc, I want arbitrary links.

      Google does not offer any of that so I won't be using it. I am glad your "some people" are so easily satisfied by the severly limited portal that google is offering them.

      --
      evil is as evil does
    13. Re:One page to rule them all... by emilymildew · · Score: 1

      Thank you for repeating your point; it was not very clear from your first post, especially given the emphasis you put on the method of information aggregation as opposed to the information you wish to have.

      And thanks for your respectful tone. That's nice.

    14. Re:One page to rule them all... by tritonic · · Score: 1

      For the privacy conscious, rolling your own would also mean you don't have to allow cookies from google.com.

  3. There it is! by jackcarter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The start of the cluttered Yahoo-like interface. the fact that Google is clean and white is the reason most people flocked to it at first. At least the customization means that I can make it what I want.

    1. Re:There it is! by Stibidor · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe the "cluttered Yahoo-like interface" is somewhat popular.

      Google is still "clean and white" if you leave the "/ig" off the end of the URL.

      And yes, you can make it what you want. :)

    2. Re:There it is! by jackcarter · · Score: 1

      Not particularly, at least not with me. I didn't notice the "ig" at the end, though. The real reason for my post is that when someone hears of Google, they check it out and say "Hey, nice and clean. Whoa... when I search for a movie, it gives me times! I wonder what else I can do?" I thought that this would ruin it, but they are still keeping the old homepage at the -ig location. So, in conclusion, go Google.

    3. Re:There it is! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What they're offering right now is rather underwhelming and far behind My Yahoo. I was hoping they would actually do things differently.

    4. Re:There it is! by bob+whoops · · Score: 5, Informative

      From the FAQ:

      6. Why did you mess up the clean, crisp Google homepage?

      We didn't. If you want to keep using the original Google homepage, you can. In fact, we expect that many users will. The personalized homepage is for those users who want to see more of the information that matters to them in the same place. You can always switch back and forth between your personalized homepage and the original Google homepage by clicking "Classic Home" or "Personalized Home."

    5. Re:There it is! by Monkeman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I like it, specifically because it's "underwhelming" and "far behind" the atrocity that is My Yahoo. It runs off of a cookie, you don't need an account and it's still nice and minimalistic. Also: am I the only one who spent like five minutes putting each module on the page and dragging them around?

    6. Re:There it is! by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hopefully, they take it the rest of the way and incorpoate groups-beta.
      Google could go the full Yahoo! monty, and have an interface that looks like "an Australian's nightmare", but I'd be very surprised.
      They seem to grasp the strategic non-value of such a turdberg.

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    7. Re:There it is! by Omnieiunium · · Score: 1

      I thought that as well. I just found out that you can even drag the boxes around the page. I find this a nifty feature. I do like the classic-google better though.

    8. Re:There it is! by hazem · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not the clutter per se that bothers me at Yahoo. It's all the friggin flashing, blinking, and pop-up ads.

      As for google... if they want to put all the stuff I like on one page, more power to them. Just don't clutter it with flashing, blinking, epileptic-fit-inducing ads.

    9. Re:There it is! by Jaiwithani · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Googleweiss, Googleweiss, Every morning you greet me, Small and white, clean and bright, Works in Gecko and IE. Don't be complex Just search and index, Don't be evil forever, Googleweiss, Googleweiss, Bless my homepage forever.

      --
      By the time you've rhymed one line, I've already busted ten; You rap in exponential time and I'm big-O of log(n).
    10. Re:There it is! by Dan93 · · Score: 1

      Nope. I thought that was one of the coolest features of the personalized page.

    11. Re:There it is! by Snarfy · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm sorry - have you ever looked at the actual link? No, not the text in the status bar, but the actual link.

      Here is what a search for slashdot says in the status bar:
      http://slashdot.org/

      Here is what the link actually is (copy link location, paste to text editor)
      http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http%3A// slashdot.org/&ei=nj-NQobLM7GUaPaJ0XA

      So yes, they do in fact track what you click.

    12. Re:There it is! by Michalson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Tracking on the normal search page is done a little differently (though perhaps they just have some server side code that returns different methods based on browser). As you know, account or no account, all Google pages attempt to implant a "never expires" cookie that has a unique ID if a unique ID is not already found on your system. The ID is used to allow Google to associate all requests with you (and if you have an account, multiple computers can be tied to a single person/ID).

      For the regular search, rather then using a redirect script, it seems to use onmousedown javascript (in this way the link you click is a "direct" link to the URL). The mousedown script causes your webbrowser to load a hidden image (which is really a tracking image, the kind used by spammers in their email to report back to them). If you examine the javascript it sends the link you clicked, your unique ID, the position on the page the link was ("1" for the first link and so on) and two type parameters (ct="res" and sa="T") encoded as the URL for the fake image.

    13. Re:There it is! by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      This is opt-in. You only get it if you want it.

    14. Re:There it is! by Plaid+Phantom · · Score: 2, Funny

      Five Minutes!? Develop your stamina, man!

      --
      All comments are properties and trademarks of the voices in my head. Not like I'm gonna claim them.
    15. Re:There it is! by Michalson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Very interesting. I was right, Google seems to have have multiple formats for what visually looks like the same result page. The underlying format determines if and how Google tracks your clicks. One factor that may play a part is the date - the unique ID in the cookie includes a checksummed date of when the ID was created. Some Google features (like the book excerpts) have already been shown to check this date and give different results based on whether your cookie appears to be an existing cookie, or if it appears that you just created it a short time ago. It would take some time to verify, but I would hypothize Google only starts including link tracking code once the cookie is old enough to mark you as a legitimate or otherwise worthwhile user.

    16. Re:There it is! by tylernt · · Score: 1

      "What they're offering right now is rather underwhelming and far behind My Yahoo"

      You say that like it's a bad thing. I hope Google never gets cluttered up with crap like the abomination that (My) Yahoo has become.

      Which is still nothing compared to MSN... /shudders

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
    17. Re:There it is! by arekq · · Score: 1

      I think that's the case only when you have "My Search History".

      I suggest you to try go to "My Account" and "Delete My Search History".

    18. Re:There it is! by tylernt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Isn't this the way that Google improves search results and updates PageRank etc? By tracking which links get clicked?

      If Google didn't track anything, their search algorythms would probably be a lot less efficient because they wouldn't be able to tell which of the search results were the ones that users found relevent.

      --
      DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
    19. Re:There it is! by sik0fewl · · Score: 5, Funny

      Are you kidding?? I can't wait until this page gets an RSS feed!

      Useless trivia: that page is actually the #1 hit (on Google, of course) for "seizure"

      --
      I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
    20. Re:There it is! by Fallen_Knight · · Score: 1

      i HATE the new google groups beta, the old one is SO much nicer. so glad i can still use it.

    21. Re:There it is! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Google had 3.2 billion dollars revenue in 2004.

      In a few years, you'll be driving your google to the google to buy some google for your google.

    22. Re:There it is! by IANAAC · · Score: 1
      Google had 3.2 billion dollars revenue in 2004.

      How much of that was profit?

    23. Re:There it is! by logoCulture · · Score: 1

      They won't fill it with flashing, blinking ads...

      But they will fill your life with carefully targeted ads. Google is setting up the best media network ever created and it is being build as the ultimate advertising delivery method. Remember how your email is being scanned for AdSense? Same will happen to your RSS. Personalize your news? They'll have ads for that.

      Whatever Google releases to the public, think about how AdSense can take advantage of it. There is too much money there not too...

      -LogoCulture
      http://logoculture.blogspot.com/
      (check the most recent post for more Google shite...)

    24. Re:There it is! by wdr1 · · Score: 1

      Well, aside from having the freaking Google Logo & search box take up half the page!

      -Bill

      --
      SlashSig Karma: Excellent (mostly affected by moderatio
    25. Re:There it is! by Threni · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There's no `next` link on the new GoogleGroups beta. I emailed them about it but apparantly it's not supposed to have a `next` link anymore. There used to be little coloured squares on the left, which were highlighted to show you which 10 articles you were looking at. Google didn't say anything about them.

      So, apparantly, if you go, say, here:

      http://groups-beta.google.com/group/rec.music.clas sical.contemporary/browse_frm/thread/8c01cd56d2a8c 13b/79e012624c34669d#79e012624c34669d

      and scroll down to the bottom of the 10 articles, the way to see the next page of 10 articles is to randomly click on the frame on the left until you find what you think is the article that's being displayed on the right, then scroll down on the page to the bottom, look at the posters name, look back to the left, try and find the relevant post (tricky if there are more than one post by the same person)...

      Am I missing something here? Click on that link and tell me how to get to the next page. Bear in mind that on the old Google Groups system, and Deja News before it, you just clicked a `next` link, once.

    26. Re:There it is! by Sandor+at+the+Zoo · · Score: 2, Informative
      ...far behind My Yahoo

      I agree. On my Yahoo page I have stock graphs (not just the quotes that Google gives you), mortgage rates, and news feeds hand-chosen from the wide variety that yahoo has listed.

      I might be able to fake up some of these with tailored google searches, but why should I have to?

      Also, I can't order the stock quotes the way I want; they're ordered the way google wants. :-(

      I do like the layout dragging. Very nice.

      Hopefully google will add more stuff to make the homepage more flexible.

    27. Re:There it is! by Politburo · · Score: 1

      You can easily track which links get clicked without tracking who (or what machine) is clicking those links.

    28. Re:There it is! by gid · · Score: 1

      why else is an account required?

      because they show you your latest gmail emails?

    29. Re:There it is! by Mr2001 · · Score: 1

      Or this one...

      --
      Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
  4. greeeeeeeaaaat by dmf415 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Would be even nicer if i can integrate my yahoo mail too! ;-)

    1. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by puiahappy · · Score: 1

      Why on earth would you want yahoo mail when you got Gmail whit 2x more space !

      --
      Think like a hacker, act like a hacker, but never become a hacker !
    2. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by mph_az · · Score: 1

      Because I've been using yahoo mail since 1999 and I don't esp feel like moving all my shit over to gmail. Esp not my 6 years worth of archived mail.

    3. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by dmf415 · · Score: 1

      I guess you haven't used yahoo in a while, they upgraded to 1 gig! Plus I use my yahoo account to fill out all those lovely forms.. i don't want my gmail account rendered useless from those freaking spammers.

    4. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by cirisme · · Score: 1
      I guess you haven't used yahoo in a while, they upgraded to 1 gig!

      FYI: Google has 2x more space, as Google currently offers 2GB and counting.

    5. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      Because Gmail won't let me do basic things, like put my own, real address in the "From:" line. They allow "Reply-to:", but it looks so 90s, and Reply-To doesn't work in all mailers.

    6. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      Well, since I use Yahoo for my DSL (currently $27/month, soon to be $20/month), I also get 2GB.

      And I never, ever come close to that amount... I don't know what I would do with it. Maybe I could upload 15 years worth of email and use Gmail's nice search feature.

    7. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by anagama · · Score: 1

      Weren't you told? This is for backups after mcrypting them.

      --
      What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
    8. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by brogdon · · Score: 2, Informative

      " Would be even nicer if i can integrate my yahoo mail too! ;-)"

      That's easy. Just create a Gmail account, and set your Yahoo mail to automatically forward everything there.

      I like helping people.

      --


      This tagline is umop apisdn.
    9. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by shird · · Score: 2, Informative

      Thatd be well and good if Yahoo didn't rape this feature out of its services (.com addresses). its gone. thanks guys. If you had told me this was a possiblity when I signed up you can be sure I never would have.

      --
      I.O.U One Sig.
    10. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by goat_of_wisdom · · Score: 1

      Yep, I'm right there with you. That's the one and only reason I still use yahoo instead of gmail. And I'm afraid gmail won't implement that feature anytime soon.

    11. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by siriuskase · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because Gmail won't let me do basic things, like put my own, real address in the "From:" line. They allow "Reply-to:", but it looks so 90s, and Reply-To doesn't work in all mailers.

      You got to think asynchrously. Read your mail with GMail, but use a mail program on your own machine to send mail. Then you can use any address you want, preferably one you can forward to Gmail.

      This gives you the bottomless archive for your messages that you can assess anywhere in the world, plus the ability to compose messages in a more powerful editor, even do it offline if you'd like.

      If you like reading mail with something other than the GMail web interface, they've got pop access, too.

      Oh dear, I'm starting to sound like an ad, they should send me a check.

      --
      If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
    12. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by pediddle · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It may look so 90s, but Reply-To only doesn't work in mailers from the 80s!

      (Feel free to correct me by naming one in which it doesn't work.)

    13. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      Why go through the hassle of using one client for reading email, and a second client for sending email? What if I want to compose email from friends computer or from my office?

      I want one interface, not two. One address, not two. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

      Yahoo Mail can do this and more, even if it lacks other features. Plus, I get 2GB of storage, pop access (Not that I use pop very often). Even free accounts get 1GB of storage, which is more then most people need.

      Don't get me wrong. Gmail's nice and all, but it's not what I need.

    14. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by NaDrew · · Score: 1
      Why go through the hassle of using one client for reading email, and a second client for sending email? What if I want to compose email from friends computer or from my office?
      Here is your answer. Use one address and one (or as many as you want) client. Get the benefit of Gmail's spam filter without the hassle of changing addresses.
      --
      Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
    15. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by siriuskase · · Score: 1

      Thanks, that's a great companion to my comment. I said you could do it, then you detailed how. I actually like the webmail interface since the automatic sorting and labeling rules work so well. I can't say that about any other webmail system I've used. But, thanks to the POP mail, if you set it up as you describe, the user doesn't even need to know he is using gmail until he needs to retrieve something from the archive.

      One thing I've noticed about the spam filtering, is how well it works on redirected mail. I have several mail accounts on a domain I own which are all pointed at my gmail account. I mark the spam on the redirected mail with the spam button, and it works as it should (how I espect), rather than marking everything coming from that domain as spam. Some spam filters, I've heard, would consider my domain a spamming domain and send all the redirected mail to the spam folder. Since I've never personally experienced that problem, I don't know if it is a real problem for some people or just an urban legend.

      --
      If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
    16. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by shic · · Score: 1



      Can plebs like me do this yet? I've not been invited - even though, as I remember it I requested inclusion in the beta on day one. Maybe I'm just not important enough... sniff...

    17. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by hritcu · · Score: 2, Informative

      set your Yahoo mail to automatically forward everything there.
      Are you sure that forwarding is free on Yahoo?

      Mail Plus
      Get personalized spam filtering with SpamGuard Plus, 2GB storage, 20MB message size, no graphical ads, POP access and forwarding, and more great features for just $19.99/year - that's less than $2/month.

      --
      If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough. (Alan Kay)
    18. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by nick8325 · · Score: 1

      You haven't? Funny, I got an invite from Google a few weeks ago now... but I've had a Gmail account for a while now, thanks to http://isnoop.net/gmail/. They have zillions of invites now, so that's the easiest way to get an account.

    19. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 1

      (Feel free to correct me by naming one in which it doesn't work.)

      I don't remember which clients don't support it correctly. But I have seen it fail on a number of clients.

      In addition, when I use 'Reply-To:', not all of recipients send email back to the Reply-To address. A large amount of email is still sent to the "From:" address. Lame lame.

      Plus it looks ugly, and confuses non-techies when they see one address in the email, and a second address when they send an email.

      Yahoo supports multiple From: address, which is why I use them instead of Gmail.

    20. Re:greeeeeeeaaaat by siriuskase · · Score: 1

      Even though my previous post was beginning to resemble an ad, I don't really care which you used. I have an active Yahoo account, too, which I check almost every day. I hope that Yahoo and GMail both remain competitive.

      I would hate to see the marketed dominated by either so much that developers need to waste too many brain cells on being compatible with anyone's nonstandard features, not unless there is a huge demand for that nonstandard feature, in which case, the defacto standard should become official.

      Fortunately, free email accounts aren't like computers and operating systems that are too expensive to own more than a few. I'd love to own more, but I can only afford to have Mac OS, Windows, and Linux in my home. I'd love the rest, but my family room isn't big enough for the boxes. As an aside, the Mac shipping boxes are so pretty, they make nice end tables.

      --
      If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
  5. More commentary... by RichM · · Score: 4, Informative

    More coverage at Google Blogoscoped.
    I submitted this story about 30 mins ago but it looks like someone beat me to it.

    1. Re:More commentary... by apoc.famine · · Score: 1

      Um, this is slashdot. I'm willing to put down $20 that your story will *also* get accepted. I mean, this is a google story, after all, and we always need more google...

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
  6. Uses Gmail Accounts by RaffiRai · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Awesome. You don't need to sign up for another account if use Gmail. Good stuff.

    1. Re:Uses Gmail Accounts by RichM · · Score: 4, Informative

      You never needed to anyway, the Google Accounts sign-in is a central login which gives you access to GMail, Groups, Video and everything else.

    2. Re:Uses Gmail Accounts by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 2, Funny

      You can get anywhere with that! Maybe they should call it Google Passport!

  7. Notice the differences though by Stevyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    between google and yahoo. Google's is clean and compact while yahoo's is all over the place. People want simplicity and when so much information is displayed at once like on lots of portals, it's difficult to find anything.

    1. Re:Notice the differences though by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Informative

      You obviously have not looked at yahoo for a while. Google is cleaner but displays less and their colour scheme chould do with some work. The edit option displays very poorly against a similar shade background.

      --
      Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
      What truth?
      There is no dupe
    2. Re:Notice the differences though by gamer4Life · · Score: 1

      Have you used My Yahoo!? It's much more powerful with more content available. You can make it look 'simple' by limiting the amount of content you decide to put on it.

      Wait until Google allows more customizability and content before making a decision on which portal is 'simpler'.

    3. Re:Notice the differences though by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

      But it looks great in lynx, when I'm too lazy to start an X server, so I got that goin' for me...

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    4. Re:Notice the differences though by cloudmaster · · Score: 1

      Color scheme? It's blue, just like google stuff has always been. It's worked for years, why would they change it now?

    5. Re:Notice the differences though by pipingguy · · Score: 2, Funny


      The "!" in Yahoo keeps me from considering it as a serious organization, nevermind the backwoods, redneck exclamation connotations it tends to evoke (not to mention the multiple cookies set).

      I'm much more comfortable with a made-up word like "Google".

    6. Re:Notice the differences though by siriuskase · · Score: 1

      It's kinda cool how it resembles the real word "googol". But, then all words were made up once upon a time.

      --
      If you must moderate, please moderate as irrelevent, not something bad, because I'm sure someone will find this interest
    7. Re:Notice the differences though by JasontheMason · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Google is cleaner but displays less and their colour scheme chould do with some work.

      It looks to me pretty much like the 'Google Blue' they use on their search results pages. Personal preference, of course, but I just think it looks like Google.

      The edit option displays very poorly against a similar shade background.

      It would be my personal inclination to design them that way. It's there when you need it, when you need it you can see it, but otherwise it's less obtrusive. I don't plan on changing things around more than a couple times a week, and for that it is plenty visible. The rest of the time it presents no visual distraction from the things I want to see. This is probably a very nit-picky sort of point, though.

      --
      "Ad infinitem et ultra!" - Buzz Lightyear
    8. Re:Notice the differences though by value_added · · Score: 1

      Agreed.

      But more to the point, email looks better (and is by far easier to read, search, process, etc.) in mutt.

      Even more to the point, I'm having trouble grasping why anyone would want to use someone else's home page. Is it that difficult to cobble together some html to roll your own?

    9. Re:Notice the differences though by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

      Don't confuse difficulty (skilled required to do something) with motivation (time/interest required to do something).
      Given the worldwide geek talent that exists, you'd think we wouldn't be re-inventing/solving the same problems at such high frequency.
      Clearly there is more going on...

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    10. Re:Notice the differences though by darien · · Score: 1

      Ah, I remember that party.

  8. WTF by The+Bungi · · Score: 3, Informative
    The nice thing about this is that it talks to GMail via something else to create the preview so it gets around proxy blocks.

    I still can't actually read messages, but I can see if I have something that requires immediate attention instead of waiting until I get home.

  9. W00t!!! by LucBorg · · Score: 1

    Woot for google!!! All we need now is gbrowser and gOS :D

    1. Re:W00t!!! by conteXXt · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ahem!

      gLinux!

      Please!?!?!?

      --
      The truth about Led Zep should never be told on /. (Karma suicide ensues)
    2. Re:W00t!!! by LucBorg · · Score: 1

      No thanks. And stop being a coward and show yourself properly. Seems like you have a big mouth, but all you can spout is hot air.

  10. Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by MrAnnoyanceToYou · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One of like nine options total is to see slashdot's news items. Strange? Not really. Suspicious? Yeah, kinda. I mean, why would Slashdot be picked among all the tech news sites out there....?

    1. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by RaffiRai · · Score: 1

      uhh.. maybe I shouldn't be answering that.. but it has alot of readers? More than most?

    2. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because they're trying to appeal to geeks who want to try cutting edge technology first?

      Maybe it's a reciprocal agreement. If Slashdot uses a Google News Story several times a day, Google will link to Slashdot?

    3. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by kristopher · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's simple really. CowboyNeal is having an affair with google. That has to be it. Everything is coming together now. I wonder if he'll leak out the video tape Paris Hilton style. That would be awesome. I so want to be CowboyNeal, unless of course he ends up with some kind of google std.

      .. Who am I kidding, you know I'd still hit it.

    4. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by squidfood · · Score: 1

      One of like nine options total is to see slashdot's news items.

      But for some reason it's lagged, this story isn't showing up there yet. Oh wait, they must be afraid of an infinite loop infinite loop infinite loop...

    5. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by Tribbin · · Score: 1

      Works like a charm now. Forget parent post.

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    6. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by Tribbin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      1. Because it matters.
      2. Because that is the first thing the programmers wanted in it.
      3. Save slashdot a whole lot of (CTRL+R) page requests.
      4. Because we are the first to know about this customized page, for sure.

      --
      If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
    7. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by nicnak · · Score: 1

      Actually I discovered the personalized homepage from slashdot, created a personalized page, added slashdot to my page, re-noticed the artical and clicked the link to go back and post.

      I think this is finally going to replace slashdot as my home page.

    8. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by alphakappa · · Score: 1

      All the I-love-google-and-want-to-have-its-baby stories on Slashdot had to pay off some day!

      --
      "When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
    9. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by MrNonchalant · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My friends have been asking me for something that could add Gmail and news headlines to the Google homepage. I saw a Slashdot post requesting the same thing, and someone wrote back: if you want that feature, do it yourself and whip up some code or scrape the data. Of course, why would my friends spend any time hacking this together when they could just get me to do it for them? - Brian Singerman, Software engineer on the Google Blog posting about the new portal.

      Somehow I think this explains it.

    10. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by ucblockhead · · Score: 1

      Why Slashdot? Because, of course, the guys who work for google are all dorks.

      --
      The cake is a pie
    11. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by kavau · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Despite all conspiracy theories, I think the reason is simply that the programmers who implemented the customized homepage are avid Slashdot readers.

    12. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by xtracto · · Score: 1

      SPEAK SLASHDOTTERS!!!

      How many of you work at GOOGLE!

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    13. Re:Anyone else note the GoogleDot effect? by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      For a while, there used to be a Slashdot command on the Bloomberg system (kind of like AOL for financial professionals, but costs $20k per year): SLSH. They got rid of the Slashdot command, but it's still offered as item 23 out of the 20-some options in the technology news section (WCPR).

      They also got rid of the XXX command, which was fun while it lasted :)

  11. Just tried it. by rokzy · · Score: 1

    very good, especially the drag and drop rearrangement ability. but I doubt I'll be using it. my gmail is just for the very rare untrusted sign up, safari and firefox support google search from the search bar, and safari has far better RSS feed management than this.

    1. Re:Just tried it. by RaffiRai · · Score: 1

      The drag and drop features seems like it could become slightly annoying. It would be nice if you could lock it..

  12. It has slashdot by endx7 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Even has slashdot as one of the things you can put on it.

    At least they didn't put this on the main front page. Stuff like this tends to be cluttered, and I dislike clutter.

  13. Custom defaults by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I really like this look and feel.

    However, I would personally like a standard default available so that I don't have a different looking homepage just after clearing internet cache/cookies etc.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Custom defaults by Mediamon · · Score: 1

      Right on!

  14. Global Domination by OiITMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well personally I'm happy that Google keeps trying harder and harder to become the all-encompasing mega corp that we all need to place our faith in... An I for one welcome... eh.

    --
    This is the opinion of The Oi Group's IT guy, not of The Oi Group. It's probably complete nonesense anyway.
  15. Better everyday by Supp0rtLinux · · Score: 1

    Aw Google... they just keep adding good stuff...

  16. Whoa, custom by ecliptik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I love how you can customize it, it can even pull stories from slashdot (although it lags a bit, for instance this story hasn't shown up yet).

    If you don't like how they're arranged, just click and drag the boxes around, really truely awesome use of DHTML.

    My one gripe is with the gmail integration, when you open a message it looks a bit kludgy, and from there if you try and the inbox link at the top you get a "grrr! you have a popup blocker" message. Note that I'm using Firefox here, and from how FF friendly they are you think this wouldn't be an issue, oh well, it still rocks.

    1. Re:Whoa, custom by thegamerformelyknown · · Score: 1

      I tried the Inbox link, and it worked fine for me (Firefox)

    2. Re:Whoa, custom by bob+whoops · · Score: 3, Informative

      (although it lags a bit, for instance this story hasn't shown up yet).

      Blame Slashdot. The RSS hasn't updated yet.

    3. Re:Whoa, custom by oirtemed · · Score: 1

      it uses javascript...ick

    4. Re:Whoa, custom by ad1 · · Score: 1

      It is great. Quote of the day: If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run - and often in the short one - the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. - Arthur C. Clarke Google?

    5. Re:Whoa, custom by freeweed · · Score: 1

      It's not the inbox link from the front page. Click on a message from the front page, then try the inbox link that's in that message.

      I got "grrrrr!" too. Which is funny. The only other place I've seen something like that ("it appears that you're running a popup blocker") was a really obnoxious site years ago that used highly obnoxious popup ads, and used a trick like this to deny access to the rest of the site if you were an Opera user (that being the only browser at the time with a popup blocker of any sort).

      Otherwise, a pretty cool google addition. But that bit really left a bad taste in my mouth.

      --
      Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
    6. Re:Whoa, custom by thegamerformelyknown · · Score: 1

      That was the inbox link I tried...

    7. Re:Whoa, custom by Mediamon · · Score: 1

      Inbox link worked for me too. But took longer than normal to render inbox (that is longer than when logging in from normal gmail login page).

    8. Re:Whoa, custom by Ilgaz · · Score: 1

      I wonder if I missed some google brainwashing signal or something.

      Its amazing you people don't know http://my.yahoo.com/

      See the limits of customization, I can't really understand you people.

  17. Strange... by rainman_bc · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know a lot of users who switched to Google for its simplicity.

    Remember Excite, Hotbot, Lycos, Infoseek, and Altavista all used to look like Yahoo.

    Then Google started to kick ass and everyone moved away from that format to a minimalistic approach.

    No google is trying to become Yahoo? I'm going dizzy just thinking about it...

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    1. Re:Strange... by Nybler · · Score: 1

      People switched to Google because it provided relevant, quick and non-biased search results - the minimalist interface was a nice touch.

      I hope Google doesn't lose sight of their strengths in their attempt to become the next Yahoo!

    2. Re:Strange... by Teja · · Score: 1

      No google is just trying to appeal to a wider userbase (not that they don't have so already). Many people wanted a customized Google homepage, and here is Google's response to it. And notice all the pieces of the puzzle fit in... Google maps, movies, email... and now personalized homepage. Google is slowly becoming a complete site, no longer just a search engine. The beauty of it is the fact that they still approach all their services by offering a very clean interface. Now that is an innovative company.

      --
      - Teja
    3. Re:Strange... by Bongo+Bill · · Score: 1

      Well, it's not as if you have to use the cluttered interface.

      --
      ...but is it art?
  18. One thing left out. by DarkProphet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Pretty nice. The clean drag 'n drop and edit stuff is good. One thing I would have liked to have seen is a 'generic' RSS box instead of one specifically for /.

    Maybe they'll get around to that.

    --
    What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
  19. Gmail opened up?? by mastropiero · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just browsed through these pages, and saw the registration link for gmail. WTF??

    1. Re:Gmail opened up?? by amembleton · · Score: 1

      No. That registration link is for Google services, not gMail. If you click on the link it requires you to enter a valid email address, and they don't seem to offer you one. However it is possible that they will email you a link to set up a gMail account.

    2. Re:Gmail opened up?? by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, every current Gmail user has 50 invites to give out... so, yeah, there are millions of invites. I ran out of people to send them to, so now to amuse myself, I sometimes send invites to "do_not_reply@organization.com" and fill in funny names.

    3. Re:Gmail opened up?? by c4ffeine · · Score: 1

      As far as I can tell, they've been offering invites to random users for a while. They offered me one once, and I know a couple people who also noticed it. Someone brought it up here before, but I'm too busy with finals to look it up.

      Hope that explains

      --
      "73% of quotes on the Internet are made up" -Ben Franklin
    4. Re:Gmail opened up?? by mastropiero · · Score: 1

      I already had one, what surprised me is that it struck me as if gmail had opened up and it still hadn't shown up four times in the main page...

  20. Suggest by centinall · · Score: 1

    It's too bad Suggest isn't incorporated into it. http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

  21. Pretty weak so far by prostoalex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The interface is nice and clean, but it's still not My Yahoo!

    - No outside RSS feeds, so can't add anything beyond pre-selected sources
    - No user-selected color coding, so semantically the boxes are barely distinguishable
    - Small things, like inability to select a subset of Google news, not just top stories

    All fixable, and it's obviously a beta, but it's surprisingly a really raw beta.

    1. Re:Pretty weak so far by imemyself · · Score: 1

      I would agree. While the drag 'n drop is very nice(even works in Opera!), and its nice to see there will finally be a way to integrated Google News/Gmail/etc, this is lacking a lot of functionality.

      --
      Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
    2. Re:Pretty weak so far by Bullet-Dodger · · Score: 3, Funny

      - Doesn't have a big flash-ad at the top.

    3. Re:Pretty weak so far by awful · · Score: 1

      Not only that - but I can't see my weather (Melbourne, Australia) nor localise my news. I've mentioned it to them, and no doubt it will appear in time, but it would be nice if for once when Google creates a new service they think about internationalisation from the git go.

    4. Re:Pretty weak so far by eightwire · · Score: 1

      I reckon the reason they have not added RSS support right off the bat is because they are going to start a Bloglines-type service and allow people to integrate it.

    5. Re:Pretty weak so far by IANAAC · · Score: 1
      it's a *BETA*, you jackass karmawhore.

      So is gmail, yet everyone seems to praise that like there's nothing else available to them.

      My personal opinion is if you keep something in beta for too long, yet let EVERYBODY use it, everyone will just assume anything you release with "beta" will really be ready for general use.

    6. Re:Pretty weak so far by guitaristx · · Score: 1

      I think the problem is that most people don't understand what a true beta release is.

      The parent and GP are probably accustomed to software being called beta, but it's really alpha, or possibly even pre-alpha.

      FYI:
      Alpha = Feature-complete, but known to be unstable
      Beta = Feature-complete, few (or no) known bugs, stable enough to be usable

      Microsoft - I can't believe it's not beta!

      --
      I pity the foo that isn't metasyntactic
  22. Initial thoughts by Deag · · Score: 1

    I don't know, I just tried it there and it's nice, but I don't like how it looks.

    Ok, it is the initial version, but compared to other stuff from Google like Gmail, it doesn't seem very polished. Be nice if you could minimize each of the portlets also.

    1. Re:Initial thoughts by conteXXt · · Score: 1

      agreed.

      but remember googlenews was non-customizable for a long time too.

      I would imagine that this too will evolve in a good way.

      --
      The truth about Led Zep should never be told on /. (Karma suicide ensues)
  23. When will Google stop? by bogaboga · · Score: 1
    This is yet another "innovation" from Google, but when will it stop? This is a plea to Google: "Bring on more features but keep Firefox users close at heart."

    I wish them well after all Google's moto is "Do no Evil!"

  24. Re:UGLY - CLUTTERED - DISAPPOINTING by -kertrats- · · Score: 1

    As opposed to what? Yahoo?

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
  25. Excellent by paulius_g · · Score: 1

    This is just what I was waiting for! /me loves Google!

  26. Didn't you know? by Colin+Smith · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot is world famous. A roving random distributed denial of service attack before which web, network and systems administrators alike quake and have terrible nightmares about.

    How many other tech news sites can claim that?

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Didn't you know? by sonixtwo · · Score: 1
  27. Google - stop with all these new additions! by chrism238 · · Score: 1

    Don't you know that Steve Ballmer said you're going under in 5 years? Get out of the IT business with your stock shares intact, while you still can....

  28. Slashdot - Google Article not present by danyamohr · · Score: 1

    Interesting how the top article in the slashdot is the "sith" article and not this one...
    Is there a delay or could they have filtered their own article...

    Like the idea on the whole.

    But, if you click on an email message it takes you directly to that message without any of the gmail files, links, etc. Not very usefull.

  29. calendar reminder by rotary7 · · Score: 1

    So when do I get my gcalendar and greminder?

  30. OMG!! by lortho · · Score: 5, Funny

    You guys... seriously... it's Google... they released a product... that's non-beta... seriously, you guys, come quick!!!

  31. OT: Contraction translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    First sentence:

    Citing user requests to coalesce it is disparate services, Google today released it is new personalized homepage service.
    Remember, "It's 'its', not 'it's'."

    Or, just read Bob the Angry Flower's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots (his words, not mine!). I mean, sheeh, twice in the first sentence? You idiot. (My words, not his!)

  32. finally it begins! by vito0726 · · Score: 1

    F**king a man, its finally happening! we all know where this is headed right? most people want to see an OS eventually, so how about if it was online completely 24/7 turning our boxes into nothing but data we want to keep! bill better be paying attention because in five years it looks like he is going to hearing "ill make u an offer u can't refuse"

    1. Re:finally it begins! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      you're fucking a man? hey--not that there's anything wrong with that, but you might want to try an alternative spelling for that phrase :)

  33. DRAG AND DROP!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    this is one of the most amazing web interface's i've ever seen. google has done some remarkable work with gmail and maps.google.com and this is even better.

    it would be nice if someone could make a toolkit for php or whatever to make web interfaces that are as rich as regular app interfaces. Qt for the web!!

    1. Re:DRAG AND DROP!!! by HG2 · · Score: 1

      There is already http://gtk.php.net/

    2. Re:DRAG AND DROP!!! by pipingguy · · Score: 1


      Anyone if/when the Google Maps' aerial photos are updated? Don't they own the satellite?

    3. Re:DRAG AND DROP!!! by SirTalon42 · · Score: 1
      What is PHP-GTK?
      PHP-GTK is a PHP extension that enables you to write client-side, cross-platform GUI applications. This is the first extension for PHP of its kind, and was written in part to prove that PHP is a capable general-purpose language that is suited to more than just the web application environment.
      This extension will not allow you to display GTK+ applications in a web browser. It is intended for creating standalone GUI applications.


      Sorry, thats not for browser based apps.
    4. Re:DRAG AND DROP!!! by tsager · · Score: 1

      Have a look at http://www.idots2.org/.
      Or a nice demo of it:
      http://www.idots2.org/egroupware/login.php (demo/demo)

    5. Re:DRAG AND DROP!!! by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      Nothing to shout about. Here is a good resource for things like that.

  34. This article? by Prometheus+Bob · · Score: 1

    So I just signed up; How long does it take a new article to show up with this personalized Google thing? Because it's still showing the "sith" article as newest...

  35. The Google service I'd like to see is... by vocaro · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... http://grammar.google.com/

    coalesce it's disparate services -->
    coalesce its disparate services

    released it's new personalized homepage service -->
    released its new personalized homepage service

  36. Google will hit a limit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    to how much personalization they can do. It's just a matter of time. People are not going to return to the days of the mainframe. One of the main reasons why pcs have done so well is that you have your own hard drive. Google's model is just as bad, if not much much worse than .NET My Services, Hailstorm, and Total Information Awareness.

    Basically, Google is not empowering people. They are creating a worldwide service where they are the single "Doc" format that only they can view and open. It's worse than MS in a lot of ways.

    Totally anonymous searching is one thing, but the more that they try to do this, the more resistance they will hit. This whole "Do no evil" thing is a bunch of double-speakin' jive, I tell ya.

    If Google REALLY wanted to make a splash, they would create an installable web platform where people could run their own instances of each service. It would kind of be like as an analogy as if you could obtain "MapPoint" but "GoogleMaps" and then create your own service with it. I know you can mash up Google maps and such, but why don't they release the source to it? They can still run their own instance of it and provide services around it, but create an open platform where other people can have the same OPPORTUNITY that they are creating for themselves. As it is, they're just locking people in way worse than Microsoft ever did.

  37. Re:UGLY - CLUTTERED - DISAPPOINTING by -kertrats- · · Score: 1

    Did you even click my link? Try again.

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
  38. The UK version is broken by Pete+(big-pete) · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you go to http://www.google.co.uk/ig/customize then try to set and save your settings, you'll find that it's pretty broken...

    It seems to send the page into a loop...in IE you will just receive continuous warnings that you are being redirected to an nonsecure page.

    -- Pete.

    1. Re:The UK version is broken by Pete+(big-pete) · · Score: 1

      It seems to send the page into a loop...in IE you will just receive continuous warnings that you are being redirected to an nonsecure page.

      Okay - replying to myself...but now I've just tried the .com version again, and I'm getitng the same issue. Maybe this is just me. Doh. Also if I try and sign-in, the page just times out.

      I might try rebooting, then try again...

      -- Pete.

    2. Re:The UK version is broken by Pete+(big-pete) · · Score: 1

      Okay - replying to myself...but now I've just tried the .com version again, and I'm getitng the same issue. Maybe this is just me. Doh. Also if I try and sign-in, the page just times out.

      And replying to myself yet again, I can now say it's certainly broken, both the .co.uk site and the .com site. It worked the first time I went to the pages, but now it's all broken. If you have had it working, purge your cookies and see just how broken it is now.

      Maybe we slashdotted google? ;)

      -- Pete.

    3. Re:The UK version is broken by Artega+VH · · Score: 1

      Same for the .au version... I think it might be everyone except the plain .com version

      --
      groklaw, wired and slashdot. The holy trinity of work based time wasting.
    4. Re:The UK version is broken by Yakman · · Score: 1

      Had the same problem with the search history thing a few weeks back, wouldn't work anywhere but on .com but I automatically get redirected to .com.au most of the time. Sent them the feedback at the time, don't know if they fixed it.

    5. Re:The UK version is broken by Nermal6693 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, same for the NZ version too.

    6. Re:The UK version is broken by Leto-II · · Score: 1

      Purge your cookies and see how it's fixed again. :)

      Because you got it confused once it saved that confusion in your cookie. Clear em all out and .com will work again. Just don't try the localized domain again til they fix it.

      --
      Do not anger the worm.
    7. Re:The UK version is broken by Pete+(big-pete) · · Score: 2, Informative

      Purge your cookies and see how it's fixed again. :)

      Thanks, I had to do it a couple of times, because if I just tried to log in with my profile, it would try the UK version again and get broken again, but once I went back through the process of setting up the page it worked fine!

      Cheers,

      -- Pete.

    8. Re:The UK version is broken by horza · · Score: 1

      If you go to http://www.google.co.uk/ig/customize then try to set and save your settings, you'll find that it's pretty broken...

      It seems to send the page into a loop...in IE you will just receive continuous warnings that you are being redirected to an nonsecure page.


      It's broken under Firefox too. It loops until Firefox reports that redirection limit has been exceeded.

      Phillip.

    9. Re:The UK version is broken by FEEBLE*BMX · · Score: 1

      Broken for Canadians as well.

      .com redirects to .ca redirects to .com redirects to .ca and so on.

    10. Re:The UK version is broken by bigdumbyak · · Score: 1

      I get the smae thing here in canada, using www.google.ca.

      I try to log in and then firefox says that i've been redirected the maximum amount of times and that it's likely because i've blocked cookies.

      Damn americans and thier getting to use stuff before me. Just wait until SarsEbolaX takes hold of your government... oh wait... I'm not a biochemist... nevermind, you're safe. FOR NOW! Mua-hah-hah-hah...ha.... ha. Ow.

      --
      Stupid people hurt my head.
  39. MyFrame by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    I wish that Google homepage would let me include arbitrary HTML. Especially an so I could include any content from any webserver in the page, including my own. Slashdot doesn't even allow that. But it really is the most "P2P" type customization, where the content is provided by the user, rather than the provider of the page.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:MyFrame by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      What do you think about Firefox's GreaseMonkey?

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  40. Re:UGLY - CLUTTERED - DISAPPOINTING by supersling · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, I hadn't. I thought that it was just a link to regular Yahoo. Yahoo Search doesn't look have bad, I'll have to give it a try. Do you think that there was any Google influence in their design?

  41. Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by H01M35 · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The first thing that jumped out at me once I personalized my googlepage was that /lots/ of saved searches from a long time ago showed up in a drop down from the search bar.

    Hopefully for the rest of you your googlepage doesn't fall into the wrong hands. If people were to find out what you had been searching for, how would they feel? How would you feel?

    Heck, I felt a bit violated and it was only /me/ that saw them.

    1. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by SPY_jmr1 · · Score: 1

      Bua?

      WTH are you talking about? Dropdown? Saved searches?

      Not trying to be condecending, just that mine does not have anything like that.

      FF 1.0.2-ubuntu

    2. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by 42forty-two42 · · Score: 1

      This isn't google's doing. Clear your form history. I opted-into the my search history system, even, and when I clear my form history there were no saved searches in a drop-down.

    3. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by H01M35 · · Score: 1
      I hadn't seen it before - but I recently upgraded to Tiger, complete with Safari RSS. As soon as I start typing things into Google, not just the googlepage, but even the main search page, it tries to complete it for me using previous search terms. I think it's new, but it might be that I just didn't notice it before. In Google's defense, this may have nothing to do with them, but it serves to remind one that if you don't want your search history saved and possibly scrutinized, steps should be taken to protect yourself.

      (And off comes the tinfoil hat.)

    4. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by hachete · · Score: 1

      On machines in places I distrust, I delete *all* cached info every time I log out.

      It isn't just Google you have to worry about - lots of people out there want to grab your info.

      Now, if only I could carry my cookie data with me. That'd be a bonus.

      --
      Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
    5. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by GauteL · · Score: 1

      "The first thing that jumped out at me once I personalized my googlepage was that /lots/ of saved searches from a long time ago showed up in a drop down from the search bar."

      You know, that is most likely just the autofill feature of your BROWSER, rather than a feature of Google.

      Look through the saved information in your browser and delete it if you are paranoid.

    6. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by e_xworm · · Score: 1

      wasn't there a version of firefox (thunderbird etc) that whould install and run from a usb stick? You could use that instead of carrying just your cookies... I mean... watch for that blue cookie monster man :P

      --
      X~
    7. Re:Saved searches from a long time ago resurface. by hachete · · Score: 1
      --
      Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
  42. grrrr by judd · · Score: 3, Funny
    When will Google strip annoying extraneous apostrophes?

    Its != it's

    Thank you.

    1. Re:grrrr by nn5ks · · Score: 1

      "It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's,
      not its, if you mean it is. If you don't,
      it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's.
      It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise
      yours and theirs." -- Oxford University Press, Edpress News

  43. Re:Combine with Google Suggest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Greasemonkey has a script to add Google Suggest to the regular homepage. I guess it can be trivially modified to work with MyGoogle as well.

  44. Just like Yahoo, except... by FuzzyFox · · Score: 2, Funny

    When is the Google Instant Messenger coming out?

    --
    splunge (n) -- A good idea.. but it could be lousy... and I'm not being indecisive!
    1. Re:Just like Yahoo, except... by kertong · · Score: 2, Informative
    2. Re:Just like Yahoo, except... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      As soon as they manage to write one in JavaScript.

  45. Same here by resentment · · Score: 1

    I changed from Yahoo! over to Google because of the looks. It faired way better on my slow moving 56k connection at the time.

  46. Only thing.. by bmantz65 · · Score: 1

    I wish there would be a "Back to My Google" link when viewing an email messsage from the personalized page. Also, you can't delete the emails? Google isn't going anywhere. They just need to put an overlay on the satellite views on Google Maps, and I will always use it.

  47. Formatted by Jaiwithani · · Score: 5, Funny

    Googleweiss, Googleweiss,
    Every morning you greet me,
    Small and white,
    clean and bright,
    Works in Gecko and IE.

    Don't be complex
    Just search and index,
    Don't be evil forever,
    Googleweiss, Googleweiss,
    Bless my homepage forever.

    --
    By the time you've rhymed one line, I've already busted ten; You rap in exponential time and I'm big-O of log(n).
    1. Re:Formatted by TuringTest · · Score: 1


      I love the movie btw.


      What! Is there a Google movie? What's the title: The Found of Googling?

      I figure that they will release it first in beta...

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  48. Redirection loop by kbahey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, I clicked on the link in the article, and was able to setup a page and customize it.

    I then visited Google Canada's home page, and added /ig to it and tried to do the same, and ran into a redirection loop (seems google.ca tried to redirect to google.com, which tries to redirect to google.ca, ad infinitum...

    Now neither /ig pages work at all. I had to clear all the cookies to get back to one page that works.

    Hey Google guys! I know that some of you are reading this. Please fix it.

    1. Re:Redirection loop by ud+plasmo · · Score: 1

      yeah i just had the same problem in my firefox
      itll just redirects forever and this is what i get in my firefox:
      "Redirect Loop Error"
      "The browser has stopped a connection because the site is redirecting requests to itself in a manner which prevents it from ever completing."

      google needs to fix this :D

      --
      Norris Normal - Who am I?
    2. Re:Redirection loop by Wizarth · · Score: 1

      As additional info, the .au site will cause the same thing. I suspect it's all localized sites.

    3. Re:Redirection loop by GoogleGuy · · Score: 1

      I'll pass on the feedback--thanks for mentioning it.

    4. Re:Redirection loop by anethema · · Score: 1

      Worked fine for me with google.ca/ig

      Gmail didnt work though.

      --


      It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
    5. Re:Redirection loop by Tooky · · Score: 1

      Yep happened for me with .co.uk in Safari

    6. Re:Redirection loop by slurpster · · Score: 1

      Same happens on google.co.uk/ig Would have thought google would expect people to try localised version and just disable it.

    7. Re:Redirection loop by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      Just to confirm, that's my experience using google.co.uk as well.

      Other than that, the drag and drop thing is awesome. You guys are starting to make the rest of us poor web developers look bad ;-)
      (At least I don't do the front end stuff, so it's not exactly my fault when we don't measure up)

    8. Re:Redirection loop by kbahey · · Score: 1

      Thanks. Appreciate it.

      Also see this comment about Weather not working in Canada (requires a zip code). I faced the same thing, and had to remove weather from my home page.

      Another thing is the Google logo takes up too much space at the top. Perhaps it can go to one side.

      All in all a great job, and I am sure it will improve over time.

    9. Re:Redirection loop by kbahey · · Score: 1

      Perhaps because gmail has a .com domain and hence its cookies are not shared by the .ca domain.

    10. Re:Redirection loop by duffer_01 · · Score: 1

      I doubt they will fix this right away since most of the services (i.e. Weather) are US centric only.

    11. Re:Redirection loop by dave1212 · · Score: 1

      gmail showed up fine for me, using google.ca/ig, i just had to reload it once, but works fine. Using Safari 2.

  49. Re:just like ballmer said by smittyoneeach · · Score: 1

    No, MSN didn't immediately collapse.
    Nor is Google's collapse imminent, trolltard.

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  50. Re:I want g-mail by kertong · · Score: 1

    really? d'oh.

    just sent you an invite to your email addy. enjoy!

  51. more content, more features, less "flair" by hellfire · · Score: 1

    I like the interface as it stands now, very simple and easy to use. I'd like more content, but that can be added easily. My Yahoo jazzed up their interface and ruined some aspects but added no new content, which now bug the hell out of me.

    Now all they need are TV listings, along with the ability to customize the listing, and customize the theaters I see, and I'm set.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

  52. Search for search; home page for news by jfengel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use My Yahoo as my home page. It gives me the news, weather, and other miscellaneous stuff. I check it a few dozen times a day, whenever I want to connect with what's going on.

    I use Google to search.

    At this point, a "Personalized Google" home page wouldn't be a reaplcement for Google, and in fact they shouldn't take up half the front page with a search bar. It would be a replacement for My Yahoo. When I want to search, I'll search. When I want to know what's going on, I'll hit my personal page.

    What I see of Perssonalized Google Home Page isn't taking me away from My Yahoo yet, especially since I use neither Yahoo mail nor GMail. (Not that I have anything against gmail; I just own my own domain and use that instead.) I like My Yahoo's collection of news better, which is funny because Google News has all the ones I could possibly want.

    But if they keep at it, combine the maturity of My Yahoo with Google's fancy Javascript and good instincts for non-evil features, and it may not be long before I abandon My Yahoo entirely.

  53. Slashdot option on Google by sankyuu · · Score: 1

    Available options for personalizing Google:
    []Gmail
    []BBC
    []Weather
    ...
    []Slashdot
    ...
    They're slashdotting slashdot?
    Or *dons tinfoil hat* are they tracking the pages that I visit often?

  54. Seen this yet? by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 1

    EPIC 2014, the Evolving Personalized Information Construct.

    1. Re:Seen this yet? by kyojin+the+clown · · Score: 1
      i hate that bloody thing. every time there's an article about google, someone wheels out EPIC.

      are we supposed to be shocked and excited that normal people wont bother to access real, important news in the future? sorry, but most of the people i know read 'Heat' magazine not 'The Times' - its hardly going to change the world as we know it is it? normal people have had access to news for less than a century, really, so what exactly is EPIC trying to warn us about? its total bollocks.

      not trying to single out or discredit parent poster, just trying to get a sense of perspective on EPIC. it does have nice music though.

    2. Re:Seen this yet? by DrunkenTerror · · Score: 1

      Well, really, I feel about the same as you do, but at the time I posted that, no one else had posted anything about EPIC. I just recently stumbled on to it, so maybe I'm late to the party, but I thought perhaps some others out there hadn't seen it yet either.

      I agree that EPIC pretty much exists today, but just because you and I realize it, doesn't mean the rest of the crowd has. Things like the EPIC animation, while they seem overly dreary & dystopic, do serve a purpose in that by exaggerating current trends, it calls attention to the way things really are/might be.

      Most of us are just sleepwalking throught the day anyway. I don't mind an EPIC-like doom&gloom to give me pause from time to time.

  55. Too bad... by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it'll be gone in 5 years. Oh well, I'm sure MSN will have something to replace it.

    1. Re:Too bad... by stubear · · Score: 1

      I kow you're trying to be funny but MSN has had a personalized homepage for years now. You should try it some time, it's actually pretty damn good. MSNBC used to have a great personalized news page for the Outlook Today page in Outlook but they stopped supporting it and closed the site down; bummer.

  56. Re:Google: The emperor is buck naked by Bongo+Bill · · Score: 1

    Why should that matter, if they offer a variety of good services efficiently?

    --
    ...but is it art?
  57. Re:I want g-mail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://isnoop.net/gmail/

    Over 1 million invites available and counting

  58. Copy by northcat · · Score: 1

    I thought slashdot was Google's personalised homepage.

  59. The Slashdot applet by LoveTheIRS · · Score: 1

    So, I load the slashdot applet in the customized google. The top post is "Google's New Personalized Homepage".

  60. IG? by soupdevil · · Score: 1

    What's the ig for? iGoogle? Please tell me no.

  61. Re:Google: The emperor is buck naked by irefay · · Score: 1

    Oh Oh.... I think we found were that 157 million bucks for M$ advertizing went. Not only are they targeting bloggers, NOW they got to some /. ers too. :) C'mon, seriously what is the diffrence between M$ when they began and Google now? As I see it they took simaler pathes (well, google was actualy not stolen ideas packaged as a "new" product, unlike M$) They both have become successful very fast from improvements made on existing technology. At one time or another they were both the underdogs. One just seems to have more fun then the other.

  62. One improvement to decrease clutter by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would be to have a "dismiss" link for the Word of the day and Quote of the day entries so they can be made to go away but automatically reappear again tomorrow.

    I quite like them, but after I've absorbed them I don't need to have them cluttering up the page for the rest of the day.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
    1. Re:One improvement to decrease clutter by geeber · · Score: 1

      I have a solution to your problem:

      Only check the website once a day.

      Next problem?

    2. Re:One improvement to decrease clutter by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Why suggest it here? Put it in as feedback to Google. They act on feedback, you know.

    3. Re:One improvement to decrease clutter by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 1

      Well, there you go.

      --
      Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  63. Re:I want g-mail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative


    Just pick a nickname and sign it

  64. I find it really neat... by tommertron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That they included Slashdot in the news services. Right up there with the New York Times and Wired News. All stuff that I read, and pretty cool that Google reads them too!

    --
    Random rants about technology: http://technorants.blogspot.com
    1. Re:I find it really neat... by amRadioHed · · Score: 1

      Dude, google reads every web page. That's what search engines are all about.

      </smartass>

      --
      We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
    2. Re:I find it really neat... by IANAAC · · Score: 1
      More to the point, it reads RSS feeds. Not unique.

      Look, you guys hyping google is all well and good - they do, after all provide some really nice things, but this is hardly groundbreaking. Can you add ANY RSS feed? No. Not yet. That may very wel change, but right now, there are other options that will allow you to add any RSS feed you desire.

  65. Nifty by BigBir3d · · Score: 1

    Works great on Firefox for OS X 10.3 :)

  66. Screenshot: Google slashdoted by colores · · Score: 1

    Google personalized homepage displaying this new

  67. Ads are coming by riversky · · Score: 1

    Google said that they are a few months off but ads WILL be a part of this...Oh well I guess eventually flash ads will be everywhere.

  68. This is my new home page. No, I'm serious. by MsGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am positively loving this. I've previously used my Yahoo account because it has everything I need when I'm traveling, or when I'm using the computers at school. I can also set it up with a two-column format that is friendly for my Original Recipe iBook. Yes I know you can also do that in Yahoo but it's just not as elegant.

    I could use a link to Google Maps, My Google Groups and some sort of bookmark storage scheme, but this will do for now.

    Oh yeah, it loads really, really quickly too.

    Call me a Google fangirl, but this rocks.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    1. Re:This is my new home page. No, I'm serious. by ArAgost · · Score: 1

      The amazing Slashdot world: "Yeah this kicks ass" gets modded +5 interesting just because the user is pretending to be a female :) Take note: set up a fake "hotchick86" account

    2. Re:This is my new home page. No, I'm serious. by netdur · · Score: 1

      > Call me a Google fangirl, but this rocks.
      you are a girl!? I thought slashdot is guys's castle

      well, of course, osnews's girl doesn't count

      --
      "Steve Jobs invented the world" -- Bill W. GATES
  69. why slashdot is so special to google by desiderius7 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As I scanned through the critical discussion of this new compilation of services by Google, I realized how calculated their marketing efforts are. It now seems quite probable that there are any number of Google employees currently tracking this thread on Slashdot. A free analysis by one of the most vocal net cultures of geeks (and n00bs)!

  70. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where's the Beta?

  71. Technical Hitch for the Australian Version by sr180 · · Score: 1
    Try logging in to www.google.com.au/ig/ and you will get a number of redirections exceeded error. Obviously they dont like us. :(

    --
    In Soviet Russia the insensitive clod is YOU!
    1. Re:Technical Hitch for the Australian Version by Darwin_Frog · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't feel bad, the Canadian page is doing the same thing. And everyone knows that you have to work to dislike Canadians...

  72. How do the afford this by rtconner · · Score: 1

    So Google keeps coming out with all of these great services and things (maps, gmail, picasa, groups, blogger) and they are all free. What I want to know is how they are free? There have got to be a ton server hits world wide, how does Google afford all of these things? I know they make enough money off of the advertising revenue program, but wow, this is getting rediculous.

    The other thing is that they leave no room for any competition anywhere. Not only is everything google offers free, but its full featured and robust as can be. Even if its not full featured, somehow you can just rely on Google to make it so in the near future. Google is almost too good, I'm starting to resent them for how good they are.

    --
    023AD01("Child", "Evil");
    1. Re:How do the afford this by cp.tar · · Score: 1
      Why, nice to meet you, Mr Gates.

      /duck

      --
      Ignore this signature. By order.
  73. Looks good overall, though primitive by Neelay+H+Thaker · · Score: 1

    Google's shot at personal homepage looks decent. However, a host of additional facilities could be provided as well, such as homepage color and templates. Template information could be stored in users' Gmail accounts. Also, inclusion of Slashdot does seem strange :-)

  74. You WILL be able to (supposedly) by jgaynor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I listened to a few hours of the stockholder briefing. Some guy in the audience actually had the gaul to ask if he could use his Yahoo Mail with this new service. Bryn deferred to the PR chick who announced this - SHE SAID YES. As in 'yes we're in talks with other vendors to get 'hooks' to display their mail services'.

    Bottom line? Google's got balls. They repeatedly stressed that they dont track user statistics by services crossover or hits per person, but by user utility. The fact that they would allow and even per-emptively OFFER access to offsite mail shows that they're not just pulling our legs about that mantra . . .

    1. Re:You WILL be able to (supposedly) by hhghghghh · · Score: 1

      Of course, yahoo owns 5% of google, so those two cooperating isn't a complete schock.

    2. Re:You WILL be able to (supposedly) by Tim+C · · Score: 1

      More sevices available = more users, it's that simple.

  75. groovy by FudRucker · · Score: 1

    that is just slicker than "snot on a door knob"

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
  76. GoogleScript by etheriel · · Score: 3, Insightful
    We're always going to dissatisfied with some aspect of these kind of personalized homepages - because ultimately our options a limited to their imagination. So, what if google created some kind of rss/html/etc. aware scripting language that let us *really* personalize our homepage? (ok, maybe a reduced version of some existing scripting language would be better.)

    I'd like to open my google-homepage and see if anyone has replied to my comments on slashdot/some random forum/etc; I'd also like to use a small chunk of my gmail storage to synchronize my bookmarks to, then display a bookmarks browser on my google-homepage. So why can't i hack these things together? Half the reason I'm not switching back to ie when it finally gets tabbed browsing (the feature that originally attracted me to firefox), is that i'd miss all my old plugins. if google could pull of some kind of system like i've just described, i'm sure a lot of their use base will be sticking with them for a while.

  77. Tell them yourself? by Shazow · · Score: 2, Informative

    Or you can just tell them yourself:

    http://www.google.com/support/fusionph/bin/request .py

    - shazow

  78. Re:UGLY - CLUTTERED - DISAPPOINTING by -kertrats- · · Score: 1

    Oh, I'm certain. You should've seen it a few months ago-it was exactly the same as Google's main page (same tabs, options, everything in the same places). They've changed it slightly since then but it's still completely derivative of the clean Google look.

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
  79. Re:I want g-mail by jessecurry · · Score: 1

    thanks everyone. I had a bunch of friends promise to give me one, but they all kept forgetting and it wasn't something I wanted to push. But I am happy to say that I now have a gmail account and am going to have a lot of fun trying it out.

    --
    Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
  80. gMinime gPortal? by otisg · · Score: 1

    That looks like Google's idea of a Minime portal.

    --
    Simpy
  81. First bug by smnoel · · Score: 1

    Try adding The Dow Chemical Company stock in your customized homepage. It will not let you.
    Come on google coders. :P

  82. Some suggestions for the news section by smnoel · · Score: 1

    Hope you can customize your news. Right now it defaults to the news in the USA by default. I would like to be able to pick modules in France, Canada and USA in different languages and different news sections.

    I'm difficult. I want business news in french from Canada. I want tech news from the main USA news site in english. And I want french news overall.

  83. Integrated browser search box by Kris_J · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I do the vast majority of my searches from the little search box next to Firefox's address box. Those that aren't done from there are done from a results page. How many people still go to the Google front page to initiate a search?

  84. Pretty darn cool for an unfinished work by jseale · · Score: 1

    Except for the lack of the forthcoming RSS innards, this is a way cool site. Setting up the weather and movie listings sections can be difficult though (for travel use) since they both require zip codes, of course Google can most likely help you look those up. The drag 'n drop interface is nice.

  85. Laughable Implementation by G1aucon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sorry folks, but Google has fallen waaaaay short here. This is nothing to get excited about yet. I seriously doubt that the Yahoo! bashers here on /. have used MyYahoo! more than 20 minutes in the last two years. It offers a hell of a lot more, and it is totally customizable.

    And I am by no means anti-Google. Google Maps is a killer app. Gmail is a super-slick email interface. But the Google portal so far is really quaint. If you thinking I'm kidding, check out Yahoo! on the Wayback Machine, circa 1998.

  86. Google Canada by dcclark · · Score: 1

    I tried this from http://www.google.ca/ which is the default Canadian Google page. In the process of setting it up, the server somehow ended up sending me into a redirect loop which caused Firefox to balk and never actually got my customizations set up. The loop was between google.ca and google.com. Bizarre...

  87. Missing Features by Jaffanator · · Score: 1

    I love the new service but . . . if the purpose is to consolidate all of Google's features into one page then they are not there yet. Central to this becoming a dominant web portal would be the integration of Blogger, Picasa, Google Groups, better Maps integration, and finally for commercial people the addition of Adwords and Adsense accounts on the front page.

    However, this being only beta I cannot complain too much (even though I do complain about GMail being down, despite it still being in beta). Google hasn't conquered my web portal business . . . yet.

    --
    Interested in Sports with a brain? --> http://dispatchesofj.blogspot.com/
  88. Also the way for them to get you to log in by msbmsb · · Score: 1

    With all their services, they didn't have an encapsulated portal to get people to log in completely so that activity could be tracked more efficiently. Now they do, finally.

    They needed a way to "package" their applications into one "OS"-like method. The only way Google can do that right now is a portal/personalized homepage. No surprise, really.

    .msb

  89. TV show module by hahn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You know what would be a KILLER idea? If you could list what TV shows or TYPES of TV shows your interested in, and then it lists when they're showing in the next week with a countdown of how long before the show begins (kinda like when bidding is going to end E-Bay style) and whether it's a new episode or re-run. If you want to browse what's coming up in the next 3 hours, it would list shows according to the CURRENT time and based on what you've been interested in before or based on your ratings of a show (Tivo thumbs up/down style).

    It would be MUCH better than the cluttered and space wasting TV Guide-style TV listing that Yahoo currently uses. The Yahoo one is also frustrating in that it's not smart about the time listing it shows. It can be 10 am and it will still show you the 8-11 pm prime time block. Even on weekends.

    --
    "The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
  90. Re: "M$"? That's hilarious! "Open sores" is funny by blue+trane · · Score: 1

    FLOSS...oh wait.

  91. I just wish they'd finally use... by Nailer · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...the nice user interface with proper tabs for Firefox clients.

    Seriously, it's so much nicer than having the page reload when you click another tab. Why doesn't the FF start page use this?

    1. Re:I just wish they'd finally use... by baadger · · Score: 1

      XUL? Yuck!

      I'm wondering why the Google homepage doesn't detect suitable browsers and serve up have a nice search switcher that doesn't reload like Yahoo.com

      Better yet just combine all the subsites into a results page (in a really nice innovative way).

      Why have tabs at all..going back to a search box and search button only without handicap would be impressive from Google.

    2. Re:I just wish they'd finally use... by Nailer · · Score: 1

      Actually, Ben Goodger, the Firefox lead, works for Google. And it was developed by both of them. And there's a whole lot of 'work more closely with Google' bugs already in BZ.

      Some idiot on Slashdot thinks otherwise tho.

  92. It will replace my.yahoo by edmicman · · Score: 1

    when I can have my comics listed (and more than 3, please) as well as specific sports scores. Oh yeah, and TV and movie listings for my area. Short of RSS news feeds, what else can it do?

  93. Google is consolidating its hold on the Internet by ravee · · Score: 1

    I think, going by the trend, that google is consolidating its hold on the internet by getting itself integrated into the lives of all people using computers irrespective of the OS that is being used. Now the question whether Google is another Microsoft in the making can only be answered a few years from now when most of the competition gets swalowed by google or gets waylayed - if it ever comes to that. For now it is a good thing for the users who get all these wonderful technologies for free.
    --
    http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com/

    --
    Linux Help
    for all things on Linux
  94. search history limits by adpowers · · Score: 1

    It looks interesting, I'll have to try it. Now... if only they would keep all of my search history and not delete it after a few weeks. It hasn't gotten above 850 yet. That limits the usefulness. I really like it, I just wish it would keep the history forever.

  95. Secure(SSL)? by GunR · · Score: 1

    If I change the URL to use https instead of http, it redirects me to the google.no searchpage.

    If I use the Inbox link to go to my gmail page, then it does not use https! It does so for my account settings, so gmail shouldn't be much of a problem.

    Anyone else have this problem?

  96. I rarely ever visit Google.com by aztektum · · Score: 1

    Seeing as how with Firefox I can add all their search features to the query window. I just click and choose what I'm looking for.

    --
    :: aztek ::
    No sig for you!!
  97. Perpetuum Mobile by should_be_linear · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google has homepage link to Slashdot stories about Google.

    --
    839*929
    1. Re:Perpetuum Mobile by tevfik.yucek · · Score: 1

      They are trying to get attension of slashdot users. Nice way of doing advertisement..

  98. Pretty fast update by rathehun · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Had a message in my inbox.

    Checked it out in T-Bird.

    Go to FF. Hit Reload. Message gone.

    Bloody fast.

    R.

  99. Doesn't work for google.co.uk by JaF893 · · Score: 1

    I'm in the uk and consequently Google auto redirects me to Google UK . Thats fine but when I go to customise my google page it gets stuck in an infinite loop of redirecting between Google and Google UK. However, if I go to google.com/ig I don't get redirect and I can customise my homepage :)

    1. Re:Doesn't work for google.co.uk by joer4 · · Score: 1

      Yep, same for me, my browser goes into a headspin!

    2. Re:Doesn't work for google.co.uk by JaF893 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Even if I change the redirection limit in Firefox to 99999 it still doesn't work.

  100. iGoogle, or "clutter it yourself" by uioreanu · · Score: 1, Insightful

    It's a really clever approach to the yahoo-like cluttered all-in-one environment. Basically you get to the cluttered environment by stuffing pieces yourself. Google avoids the yahoo trap by giving power to the user.

    --
    cut this signatures madness. stop reading them now!
  101. portal by sonictheboom · · Score: 1

    wasn't it Google's clean interface that killed the whole portal idea?

  102. Not very personalised by jonoverdose · · Score: 1

    Try typing a "zip code" for "personalised" movies/weather/etc if you live outside the US!

  103. Needs some work by salmacis2 · · Score: 1
    Very nice. Once they get this working properly I could see myself liking this. A lot.

    Problems: With Google News, all I can get are USA headlines. I've customized the dedicated Google News page to show UK headlines, but it doesn't show up on the /ig/ page.

    The weather applet only seems to work for USA Zip code areas. Where's my UK weather?

  104. Why US-only? by MyShinyMetalAss · · Score: 1

    Why is the weather-service US-only? wunderground.com who provides the data has weatherinfo for most of the world.

    --
    This is not an automated signature. I type this in to the bottom of every message.
  105. Word of the day! by goodenoughnickname · · Score: 1

    To think, a menagerie of new words at my finger tips! I presage I am going to like the Word of the Day feature.

  106. Re:Google is by cspring007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    and properly done it. And, somehow, they make a whole lot of money doing it.
    Not only are they kicking everone else's large scale web development ass, they look GOOD doing it.

  107. Me likes it by e_xworm · · Score: 1

    I read post after post that it's good but lacks X or Y feature. Well i agree i'd prefere if it had features that support my country but it's still early in development. lets give it a few weeks and see. Still it's a move to the right direction.

    BTW, I used to use akkregator as a "web start" where i could see all in once the news feeds i wanted but i couldnt use akkregator in each and every pc i use. now if/when google implements the ability to present any rss feed i want then i want have to use akkregator anymore... neat

    --
    X~
  108. Good thing ! by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 1

    I was getting worried about the future of Google.. They hadn't released a new service for DAYS !

  109. MOD UP by gglaze · · Score: 1

    Somebody with the balls to be more than just another anti-MS drone, please mod parent up! I am really amazed at this thread - sometimes /. is way ahead of the curve, but here, with all these people going, "Wow, that's just what I always wanted!", it's like... "Welcome to the year 2003!"

    Oh yeah, I forgot... M$ sucks and google really is going to keep "innovating" beyond the next 5 years!

  110. AdBlock by empaler · · Score: 2, Informative

    Link

    I love that extension.

  111. WOW! by empaler · · Score: 1

    THAT is the COOLEST PAGE EVER!

    I've been looking for .torrents of that show ever since I saw it on Simpson goes to Japan! XP

    1. Re:WOW! by subodhg · · Score: 1

      I just got blind... and it's all your fault!! you insensitive whatever....

  112. Re:5 M$ years == 23rd century by empaler · · Score: 1

    You're just a sour puss because you're not one of the educated elite that has been allowed to use WinFS (I formatted my drives WinFS in '93 for the first time, plebeian)

  113. I've been doing this for a while by EchoMirage · · Score: 1

    The nice thing about web forms is that you can put them on any page and they still work. I've had my own "customized" Google homepage for years: http://home.six27.com. It's obviously not quite as elegant as Google's, but I can incorporate all the things I want or use regularly, and if I find something else I want, I can just add it on. Plus, it's completely portable from computer to computer - no need to sign in!

  114. Step in the right direction, but needs work, lots by guidryp · · Score: 1

    Kind of a glimmer of the possability a lot of us have been waiting for.

    But it would really be nice if they let things be two or 3 columns wide. The gmail preview is pretty useless at one column wide.

    This is also the first time I ever used Adblock on Google. The big Google logo was wasting to much space on an info page....

  115. Google hack! by icemanuea · · Score: 1
    ...to unclutter than unsightly google homepage, remove the '/ig' extension.

    But seriously, the reason Google prevailed in the early days is that it didn't try and plaster the user with news, articles etc when the user simply wanted to search!

    Google philosophy: If it ain't broke, add new features that 10% of the Slashdot community will use and no-one else

    1. Re:Google hack! by e_xworm · · Score: 1

      I dissagree. I for one like these new features. And unlike other sites here the default is just what you said. Simply browsing. No search history no rss feeds no nothing.

      As for all us that like this... well i really dont have any problem typing the extra ig, nor having this as my homepage (instead of the blank page i had for years)

      --
      X~
  116. Doesn't work on .co.uk by ManikSurtani · · Score: 1

    www.google.co.uk/ig breaks when you try and sign in ...

    odd, complains about cookies. :S

    --
    -- Manik Surtani
  117. Firefox Google Toolbar update for this? by LordJezo · · Score: 1

    Now all I need is someone to update the Google toolbar with this /ig site so when I push the button it will take me to my homepage instead of the standard Google site.

    Or how about a cookie that is set on your pc so when you type in Google.com it will take you right to your /ig homepage? Hate to say it but I am way to lazy to type in /ig everytime I want to do a quick search on anything. Having the option to have this replace the standard google.com page on your pc for every search would be a nice idea.

  118. FINALLY by dotshuai · · Score: 1

    Finally, I've been emailing and emailing Google about this....and finally they have! I wish they'd team up with StartSter.... This is great though! Finally it is here! Success! The New Yahoo killer!

    --
    Shuai Google/Digg/Slashdot/Gmail addict Plus....Mozilla Firefox, etc.....
  119. Takes A Long Time for /. Stories to Show Up by ras_b · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I love this new customize google since i use a lot of the features separately, but it takes a long time for /. stories to be updated. As of this posting (8:40 am eastern) the latest /. headline still hasn't shown up (BSA Reacts to 'New' BitTorrent Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri May 20, 07:54 AM) that's almost an hour lag. since most /.ers refresh slash every 5 minutes, that's no good.

  120. Re:Combine with Google Suggest? by Bou · · Score: 1

    Try this:

    Replace the get_search_form function in the Greasemonkey Google Suggest script with this:

    get_search_form = function() {
    var f = document.evaluate("//form[@action='http://www.goog le.com/search']", document, null, XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null).singleNodeValue;
    if (!f) { // try normal search form
    f = document.evaluate("//form[@action='/search']", document, null, XPathResult.FIRST_ORDERED_NODE_TYPE, null).singleNodeValue;
    }
    return f;
    }

    Just a quick hack, but it works

  121. If gmail doesnt work with this by Lurker+McLurker · · Score: 1

    Set your language preference to US English. It didnt show my gmail when it was in UK English.

    --
    Mod parent up!
  122. So far, so good, but I am not switching by beforewisdom · · Score: 1

    I just made one.

    So far, so good. They haven't caught to Yahoo's home page yet, but it looks they are moving fast...and thinking/being innovative.

    Things I missed:
    - ability to have a lead photo
    - ability to change the colors of the page
    - ability to rearrange the layout of the page
    - calendar/reminder feature?

    I also don't trust gmail. I don't like the idea of my email being scanned, even if it is only by software for the purpose of targeted spam.

    To be fair, yahoo attaches web beacons to their web emails to track my browsing habits and every few months I have to make sure my preference to stay opted out of that is still set.

    Google has some better services. Their maps beat the crap out of yahoo.

    However, I have been using the same yahoo address for years with the intent of never having to change my email address.

    For now, I will keep my yahoo email account and my yahoo page. I will just put links for Googles services on it.

    For now

  123. I love the drag and drop by ubrgeek · · Score: 1

    Being able to drag and move the sections around is great. Nice and easy way to customize the sections.

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
  124. There's a bug... by Cervantes · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I tried it, but I think there's a bug with the weather service. It keeps coming up with these really weird high numbers followed by an "F". I know the number is wrong, because I just came in from outside, and it's only about 16C.

    --
    If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
  125. MyWay by X86Daddy · · Score: 1

    I've been using another portal website for quite some time now, that I like better than Yahoo! et al:

    MyWay.com

    It's not perfect... you can't add RSS feeds; it doesn't work well on small screens, but in terms of features and customization, it's still way ahead of everything else I've seen. It's my TV guide, my movie listings, my financial snapshot, and it keeps me aware of when my favorite shows are next coming on, at a glance... very cool feature.

    Oh, and like Google's portal, no banner ads, pop ups, blinking garbage, etc...

  126. Re:UGLY - CLUTTERED - DISAPPOINTING by Momoru · · Score: 1

    It is ugly and cluttered....but more then that, its mostly useless. Take for example the stock quotes. On my.yahoo.com, it shows me my stocks...if i click one of the ticker symbols it shows me detailed data about the stocks from finance.yahoo.com . If i click on in google it does a web search for the ticker symbol ??? And shows an undetailed chart of the stock which is completely useless. If i then click that chart it takes me to finance.yahoo.com for the stock anyways. I think this is an example of where yahoo has the upper hand because they own the content they are providing. Google is so insistent that everything be done via a web search that things often take two or three more steps then they need to be. Another good example if the public domain books....why can't they have a button or directory somewhere that i can browse through these? I need to KNOW what book i'm looking for... And finally, this personalization, while i'm sure will be held as the greatest tech achievment in the world by the Google fans here, its 7 years behind yahoo and msn's idea, and a severely poor implementation compared to either of theirs.

  127. off subject maybe by dgrati · · Score: 1

    but new. and this is my first post. mercy. So we have hyperlinks in a page. We click and we go to a section in the site. Problem: where we want to conveniently hop to is at the mercy of the webmaster. Instead, I see a term on a page. The term is not necessarily hyperlinked. I right click, click on 'hyperlink', window opens on site and shows all pages in the site where the term exists. Off I go my merry way. Gotto think through the work flow process. But I think our google can do something like this by breakfast.