Slashdot Mirror
A Peek at Personalized Google
Seoulstriker writes "Sci-tech Today is describing how Google will be offering customized homepages as seen here. Is this one step closer to Google becoming a web portal like Yahoo? Although it is not currently in Beta, it is only available through the Google Labs site. It definitely doesn't look like Yahoo yet, but I don't want my search site to be any more cluttered than it is now."
I just hope they don't execute Order 66...
So don't use the personalized webpage, then? Or personalize it so it's simple?
as long as it's a separate page from the google.com homepage, i'm cool with it.
it's when they stop offering the lightweight search page by default is when it starts to suck.
Dupe anyone???!?!
Dashboard Widgets
You know it's slashdot when we rely on our browser first to tell us that the story's a dupe before we bother using our memories
Global symbol "$deity" requires explicit package name at line 2. - If only $scripture started "use strict;"
I tried it out and actually like it for the most part. The thing that's particularly nice IMO is that all of the personalized content appears below the search feature so that the top looks more or less like the old Google. The interface seems to be the standard Google through and through and it does a pretty good job of showing you only the stuff you want when you take the time to customize it.
The only thing that they really need to do is add a feature to let you add custom news feeds based on RSS you specify or by creating Google News searches. Good News already lets you add your own categories based on search criteria so My Google needs that too.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
And, of course, if I decide I don't like it, I can simply revert back to the simple interface. As long as I can do that, I'm happy.
Anyway, who has time to think about Google when there's Star Wars to think about?!
Physicist, consultant, science communicator
This is exactly what it is.
Google.com will remain as standard.
Google.com/ig will result in custom versions.
Its very nice, the custom versions simply occupy the otherwise blank google space below and are customisable enough for most users.
liqbase
The integration of their other services is what makes this a not-so-hidden gem. I like being able to have my Gmail, Google News and regular Google Search all viewable on the one page. The weather, Slashdot and other news options are an enormous bonus -- as yet, this is replacing my RSS aggregator as all my feeds are on the site.
I like the fact that Google have not lost sight of their original focus: search. Many of the other web portals, like Yahoo or MSN, have all the graphics heavy customisation on the page and then throw their search box in as an afterthought (although this is becoming less obvious).
Google has just a couple of additions to make in order to produce another winning solution: integrated RSS feeds (as someone has already suggested), international weather information (or international versions of the customised page) and the option to put customised search buttons (like the useful Search Linux and Search Uncle Sam) under the search box. That I would like to see.
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."
If you don't like it, don't use it. Google isn't going to make this their default page.
>For those who don't get it, firefox shows visited slashdot links as darker
Welcome to the World Wide Web.
Let me show you around a bit. Over here we have what we call a "Hyperlink". A hyperlink has a number of features.
Hyperlinks are usually underlined, and usually a different colour to the rest of the text (blue by convention, unless the web site design specifies otherwise)
When you click on a hyperlink, you web browser will take you to the page it references.
If you have already been to that page, the hyperlink will be a different colour to one that refers to a page you have not visited (purple by convention or sometimes red, depending on the browser, unless the web site design specifies otherwise).
This is standard behaviour in all graphical web browsers, and has been since HTML was invented, around about 15 years ago. I appreciate that you probably weren't born then, and so therefore may think this is a new feature, or one limited to Firefox.