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New Google Homepage Features

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the so-many-submissions-about-this dept.

SecularG writes "It seems that Google has added new features to it's Personalized Home. To edit the content of your personalized homepage you click 'Add Content' in the top right, and a list of options slide out from the left. You can add your own bookmarks, select from more news feeds, and add your own RSS news feeds." Of course since Slashdot is already available from their default list of technology sites, why would you need the ability to include an RSS feed?

17 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. A dud? by rueger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, I played with it for five minutes and couldn't see much use. It wouldn't let me fine tune the news feed to suit my needs, or at least not in an obvious way, and didn't display the accompanying pictures from news stories.

    For whatever reason it won't display the weather for my location (Hamilton ON). I don't particularly like the way it displays my g-mail info, and would like to change the arrangement and width of the blocks.

    All in all this one actually looks like a beta - dull, uninspired, and not fully realized.

    --
    Three Squirrels
  2. Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like by anaesthetica · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I agree with your distaste for web portals. Still, portals remain quite popular, and I think Google is trying to tap into that area. Yahoo! still remains quite popular because it has portal features.

    On the other hand, I don't think that Google as a whole will turn into Yahoo!. The main Google page will likely always stay simple, whereas the personalized homepage is just for people who want portal stuff. The one advantage that a Google RSS/portal has is the same that Gmail has: everywhere you go, regardless of what computer you're on, it's the same interface and setup. You don't need to configure an RSS reader on each computer you use: just go to Google.com/ig. Same with Gmail.

    Also, the dhtml sliding options pane on the left is nifty, but I can't help but think that it's going overboard a little bit.

    --
    The Rise and Fall of Online Community
  3. Selling out (again)? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Has Slashdot been bought by Google? I'm serious. I don't read those Slashback articles. I've been noticing an average of about 3 Google themed articles a day and it seems like a lot, even controlling for dupes.

  4. awesome by fender_rock · · Score: 2, Interesting

    awesome, now i dont even have to search on google for my torrents if i can add the rss feeds!
    too bad limewire doesnt have rss feeds for its files...

  5. Not updated by Tyrsenus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    To bad when you add /. to your homepage the news links aren't updated real-time. This article doesn't even appear as of the time I'm writing this!

  6. highly editorialized? by supernova87a · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not complaining about Google's choices of feeds on the personalized homepage, because I actually like what they've offered -- but I can see how someone else might be offended at their editorial judgment. For example, (at least in the previous version, maybe also this one) the news choices were NYT, BBC, and other (generally) reputable sources. Now they also have Washington Post and others.

    But I can see how someone might see this as liberal bias. "Where's my Washington Times, or Fox News feed??" And then some people will complain the other way -- "How come I can't get my Democracy Now feed on the home page??"

    Maybe I just take the position that I like their choices and to those who complain about not having their own right-wing news feeds available, I say, go and create your own Google, losers. On the other hand, is it dangerous for one company to filter the available options so dramatically? You don't have to use their homepage, but when one provider is so dominant, you can't avoid issues like that...

    ps. I believe the page now lets you input your own choice of xml feeds...

    1. Re:highly editorialized? by Morinaga · · Score: 2, Interesting
      There has been accusations of bias on both sides, for example here they claim Google shows a tendancy towards conservative bias, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1095977436.php

      This one claims liberal bias, http://google.blognewschannel.com/index.php/archiv es/2005/05/04/google-accused-of-liberal-bias/

      The truth is that Google news simply shows results that are more left and right instead of just stuff in the middle. I like to see this approach more than a homogenized result. http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050520-1325 05

      As far as staple feeds showing bias, well you can do an RSS search (called "Create a Section" on the bottom left) an add anything you like to your news feeds such as Fox News or whatever you care for such as a specific conservative blog. It's actually quite easy and simple to use. It avoids having to use a seperate RSS reader and removes some of the technical intimidation that RSS offers an average user. Just for grins I tried Shacknews.com and instapundit.com, both feeds worked like a charm.

  7. Add RSS capability to the Google toolbar by WordUpCousin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One feature I noticed on the new personalized Google site was that you can add your own RSS feed. Google should integrate this into their toolbar (like Yahoo's toolbar), in case some users aren't really sure how to find the RSS file associated with each website. Instead, the toolbar should recognize that an RSS feed is available and a button should appear stating something like "Add this RSS feed to Personal Google page".

  8. How do you make money with this? by quark007 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Given GOOG stock is at all time high, my question is how does Google plan to make money with these free products?

    Google can not really commercialize this portal with the fear of getting sued by the news media.

    Or does it think that by giving away these freebies, it would attract more users to their search engine which seems to be the primary source of all their profits.

    Can anyone justify the price for google stock?

    --
    - Sh!t
    1. Re:How do you make money with this? by base3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They're going to make money selling dossiers on us to corporations, governments, and the rich. Imagine what a politician could do with the Google searches of one of his enemies and all his family members. Will this somehow be avoided? I doubt it, but only time will tell.

      --
      One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
  9. You know what would be cool ... by roubles · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... if someone could write a firefox plugin to sync bookmarks to and from the google personal page. That way all my firefox instances will have a consistent set of bookmarks.

    Currently they have a plugin that syncs to an FTP server. This is cool but not everyone has a web-accessible ftp server handy. Everyone can, however, personalize their google account.

    -- /* no comment */

  10. No it won't by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 2, Interesting
    quite possibly the apostrophe in the possessive "it's" will be the norm in a few years time
    It won't. A certain percentage of people have been making this mistake for at least all of my lifetime and probably for many decades longer, but the standard has remained unchanged. It takes a quite a bit of hubris to claim that the mistakes you make due to ignorance or incompetence are going to become a standard.
    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  11. Ask Yahoo! by mlk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I love it. Ask Yahoo on Google.

    --
    Wow, I should not post when knackered.
  12. Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like by iabervon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As long as they don't put junk in the results pages, it doesn't matter too much. People with modern browsers tend to put searches into the browser's box, not go to a google page, and people with obsolete browsers generally need a portal to get RSS and such.

  13. Re:sorry but your browser is not supported by pair-a-noyd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Here's a side by side comparison of firefox and konqueror.
    http://img223.imageshack.us/my.php?image=omfgx1309 ea.jpg

    I use a 21" Sony Trinitron CRT at 1400x1050 at 112hz
    Be aware that jpeg compression makes the fonts in this snapshot look *much* worse than they are when live.

    This is *after* I tweaked Firefox to use the same fonts (Suse Sans 12).. They do NOT look the same despite that they are both configured to use the same fonts at the same resolution.

    I rest my case.

  14. Re:Obviously... by mhearne · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I use Linux, and supposedly I can make rss work, but I haven't been able to so far, and I don't really care that much.

    There is something I think you may have missed - You can search for your own entry (or enter a url) if it isn't in Google's stock list.

    Just click on "Create a Section" at the bottom of the sidebar, and you will get a search box.

    I have already used it to add "This Day in History".

    Michael

  15. Start.com by alienfluid · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Any wanna give MS's beta start.com a try? IMHO, it's much better in terms of usability, interface and aesthetics.