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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."

20 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. 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 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
  3. 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 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!
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

  6. 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/

  7. 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
  8. 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!!!

  9. 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!!

  10. 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

  11. 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).
  12. 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?
  13. 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
  14. 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.
  15. 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)!

  16. 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 . . .