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Google's New Personalized Homepage

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the putting-it-all-together dept.

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."

49 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 !
  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.
  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. :)

      --
      http://nerdfortress.com/
    2. 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."

    3. 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?

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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.

    7. 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'
    8. 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
  4. greeeeeeeaaaat by dmf415 · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  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.

  6. 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
  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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....?

    --
    My little site.
    1. 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?

      --
      94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
    2. 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!
    3. 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.

    4. 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.

  10. 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.
  11. 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 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.

  12. 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
  13. 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 Bullet-Dodger · · Score: 3, Funny

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

  14. 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
  15. 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!!!

  16. 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!!

  17. 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

  18. 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.

    --
    Monochrome - Probably the UK's largest internet BBS
  19. grrrr by judd · · Score: 3, Funny
    When will Google strip annoying extraneous apostrophes?

    Its != it's

    Thank you.

  20. 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).
  21. 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.

    --
    2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
  22. 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.

    --
    Do you have ESP?
  23. 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 Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Informative

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

      --
      Comment of the year
  24. 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
  25. 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.
  26. 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)!

  27. 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 . . .

  28. 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.

  29. 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."
  30. 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?