New Google Homepage Features

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?

Comments

Obviously...

[grub]

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?

It takes less bandwidth to see a dupe headline with RSS than it does when one reloads the entire slashdot mainpage. [rimshot]

Countdown until Google.com looks like

[55555 Manbabies!]

yahoo.com. What a pointless and crowded web portal.

RSS eliminates the need for web portals entirely. You can just use the RSS functionality of Safari for a home page, or make a local page with the RSS feeds you want to see.

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[vinlud]

The difference is this isn't google.com, but google.com/ig, a portal you choose to visit. If you're just googling you wont notice.

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[anaesthetica]

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.

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[learn fast]

yahoo.com. What a pointless and crowded web portal.

use search.yahoo.com for a bare bones interface

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[Ieshan]

Okay. I understand the hatred for portal pages, but the truth is, lots and lots of people like them. Why? Because they can't just "make a local page with RSS feeds".

That would be like taking your car into the mechanic with a transmission problem and having him scoff at you, "Pffft. Go build yourself a new one. Moron."

The large majority of net users don't know what RSS means. They don't know HTML. Web Portals let people click on things and have a familiar feel to them. People only need to know one little address to get to a place where they can find "everything" on the web.

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[rbarreira]

Don't be an idiot, please.

Re:Countdown until Google.com looks like

[revery]

I think you made the parent post's point for him...

sorry but your browser is not supported

[pair-a-noyd]

Microsoft IE 5.5+ (download: Windows)
- Netscape 7.1+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)
- Mozilla 1.4+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)
- Mozilla Firefox 0.8+ (download: Windows Mac Linux)
- Safari 1.2.1+ (download: Mac)
Many other browsers work with Gmail's basic HTML view, including:
- Microsoft IE 4.0+
- Netscape 4.07+
- Opera 6.03+

Konqueror users are still SOL

Re:Top left

[yotto]

It is at the 'top left' here.

He's talking about the computer 's right.

A dud?

[rueger]

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.

Re:A dud?

[mboos]

I'm in Toronto, and I can get the weather. What irks me though is the fact that the temperatures default to Fahrenheit. The current temperature also has a Celcius value (but it's secondary) and all the long term forecasts are in Fahrenheit. There is no option to change everything to Celcius. I was only taught Celcius in school, and was led to believe that Fahrenheit was left on the thermometers to appease the old-timers.

This is the 21st century, people! Let's start using those SI units that everybody* has agreed on.

*The States not included

Slashdot feed

[soboroff]

It's good to be reminded that Slashdot is a Technology, not a Lifestyle.

Re:Google not the innovator here.

[Momoru]

Of course when Yahoo did it, it didn't make Slashdot news. Don't worry, in a couple of month's people will start claiming Yahoo ripped that feature off of Google.

highly editorialized?

[supernova87a]

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...

Re:highly editorialized?

[Ingolfke]

They've got the RSS option, so you can pull any data source in RSS that you'd like into the Portal.

Fox News (US & World) RSS Feed
Fox News RSS List

The Washington Times appears to offer their headlines via RSS only to subscribers.

Democracy Now

Re:Google not the innovator here.

[kpwoodr]

Can you believe this? Yahoo has totally ripped off this way cool feature from google! They have this thing where you can add RSS feeds to your portal to get content from anywhere. Google has had it for a week, and now Yahoo! is jumping on the bandwagon. I'm not sure what this RSS thing is but I'm pretty sure google invented it. Man, they are the greatest company ever.

Re:How freaking difficult is this?

[badfish99]

"It's" = "It is". The possessive is "its". Why is that so freaking difficult to grasp?

Because it's illogical: most other possessives have an apostrophe. And a short survey of modern English usage (as seen, for example, on Slashdot) will tell you that the usage is changing: quite possibly the apostrophe in the possessive "it's" will be the norm in a few years time.

Still, I'm glad you're not pompous.

won't work with customize google ff extension

[frieked]

If you are running the customize google firefox extension these new features will work very poorly or not at all depending on what preferences you have set. Just an FYI for anyone having problems.

Ask Yahoo!

[mlk]

I love it. Ask Yahoo on Google.

Re:Not updated

[comwiz56]

That would be a matter of slashdot's RSS policy (30 min between checks), not Google's fault.

Re:Google not the innovator here.

[generic-man]

Yahoo! also has the advantage in that they have integrated RSS into their search. Notice that a few of the sites have "RSS: ... Add to My Yahoo!" in the search results. Very handy.

Re:Selling out (again)?

[MynockGuano]

It may yet happen...and in the meantime, we can say we're "Waiting for gDot".