iGoogle is a good choice for a personalized home page, especially if you prefer to use Google as your search engine. If you have used Google, you know that there is a lot of empty space on the main Google page under the search box. What iGoogle does is allow you to fill that space with handy little gadgets like a to-do list, a calender, a clock, or your favorite news feed.
The interface uses drag-and-drop for easy customization, and multiple tabs let you organize the start page based on interests.
- Easy to use
- Use it without even signing up
- A wide variety of gadgets
- The gadget API allows third parties to design their own gadgets
- Some navigational issues can make it hard to use for beginners
- No support for adding custom widgets
- Drag-and-drop customization provides ease of use
- Multiple tabs for better organization
- Integrated with Google's gmail
iGoogle makes it very easy to get up and running with your very own personalized home page. You do not even need to sign up with the service to take advantage of iGoogle, though you will need to sign up for a Google account if you plan on using your iGoogle page on multiple computers. You will also need an account if there are multiple people using the same computer and each wants their own personalized home page.
Also, because iGoogle uses cookies to store settings for the personalized page, if you ever need to flush your web browser cookies, you will lose your personalized page if you do not have a Google account.
The nice part of not needing an account is you can go on their site, play around with iGoogle, design your own personal page, and then decide if you want to keep it. If you do plan on using it, I highly suggest signing up for an account so that your settings can be saved on their system.
iGoogle is a great choice for those that already use Google as their home page. Because of Google's simple design, there is a lot of empty space on the page. With iGoogle, you can use this empty space to keep up with a to-do list, track important events with their calender gadget, read the headlines from CNN, or even try to solve the New York Times crossword puzzle.
There are hundreds of gadgets available and, because iGoogle has opened up their Gadget API to developers, third-party companies can write their own gadgets. This ensures many new gadgets in the feature.
The one major feature that iGoogle is lacking is support for custom widgets. This means if you run across an interesting feature on another website, you might not be able to put it on your iGoogle page.
But iGoogle has a bright future due to its integration with Google Docs, which could lead to iGoogle being the most productive start page.
