iGoogle It Is!
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I assume that another new feature, the use of your default location on Google Maps (if you've set it) to provide more relevant search results in the main Google Web search engine is up, but you couldn't prove it by the searches I've tried this morning. Google's Sep Kamvar told me that the effect on results would be subtle, at least at first, and it seems to be.
I did a search for "Saratoga," thinking that the results might skew to the one here in the Bay Area, but I mostly got ones relating to the one in New York. And when I retried my search for "Mazda dealer," I saw no evidence that Mazda shops near me were being promoted to the top of the list.
Back to the name "iGoogle" for a moment. When Google told us at yesterday's personalization event about the new moniker, I immediately started thinking iPod. And I can't imagine I'd be alone--the lower-case "i" prefix has become pretty much synonymous with products from Apple, or with some relation to the iPod. A group which doesn't include iGoogle.
(I assume, by the way, that Apple won't carp about the name, given that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board.)
In the pre-iPod days, a lower-case "i" prefix kinda stood for "Internet." (And was a synonym for a lower-case "e" prefix, meaning "electronic.) iGoogle is no more Internet-related than oGoogle (a name I just made up to refer to Ordinary Google).
No, the "i" in iGoogle must refer to "I," as in you. Or me. You get the idea--it's about the personalization aspect.
I'm curious to see whether folks warm up to it--Google says there are tens of millions of people with personalized Google homepages, so a lot of us are going to see the "iGoogle" logo instead of "Google" from now on. Some of my PCW colleagues have said they think it's kinda goofy. I'm OK with it, but Google has been changing names of things often enough recently--Frugal became Google Product Search last week, and Google Maps became Google Local before changing its name back to Google Maps--that it's beginning to remind me of Microsoft, which has a long history of changing product names for reasons that are rarely clear to anyone outside of Redmond.
And one last thought: Wonder if Google will bother to create variant iGoogle logos to celebrate holidays, like it does with the oGoogle logo?
Anyhow, I've spent too much time on this whole matter. Just for yuks, here's a poll:
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I was fine with Google home page as it was...I have been staring at my Google logo all day wondering "what day is today?"
ii ipersonally iam itired iof iall ithis istuff!
I think there is something big going on behind the scenes between Apple and Google. The iGoogle thing is just the "writing on the wall"
Not only that Eric Schmidt sits on Apples board, Google also hired cell phone developers some months ago. Since it's unlikely that they will bring out their own phone, they might work on some integration (between iPhone and "iGoogle").
Guess it will be very interesting...
What was the point of changing it without an explanation? They should change their motto from "do no evil" to "do nothing stupid".
mccdaddy
I was hoping the new logo was a joke, until I searched around for it. I'm still hoping they give users the option of using the default logo much the same way they allow users to filter out porn and other ugly images on their image search results.
Oh barf. iGoogle. Give me a break.
I think the question here is yGoogle? yAnything that starts with an I? uGo ahead and iGoogle.
When you add as much junk to your homepage as you possibly can the logo will become aeiouSOMETIMESyGooglesterspacelisttubeworldzineblog
You might also be interested in a new start page available called Funky Homepage. It's comprsied mainly of Google gadgets (as well as Gadgets from other sources), live news feeds, daily Bushisms, daily jokes, horoscopes, videos, weather (up to 5 locations), interactive calendar, Google calendar viewer (for up to 5 Google calendars), comic strips and lots more besides. It also lets you choose your own search engine, colour scheme, etc. Unlike many of the other personalised start pages available, there's no need to create an account and it's all already set up for you, with the most popular gadgets organised by category and sub-category. So there's virtually no setting-up work required by the user. More advanced users can choose to add their own Google gadgets and RSS feeds, but most people just use the gadgets and tools provided. It's free to use and you can check it out at http://www.funkyhomepage.com
Could be an introduction to Google's own internet backbone? I read something sometime ago that mentioned they build a new facility over a completely independent internet backbone and had plans to develop there own FREE internet service...humm
iDIOTGoogle - what a bunch of twits. It's a strong sign that they are flailing away trying to find a reason to live. Can you say Netscape?
It all seems clearer now, as iGoogle is becoming more integral to iPhone too, and they work well together. I think google have shares in iPhone... so go figure.
I love iGoogle and build gadgets for it myself at http://www.gadgetbadger.com/