Home Is Where The House Icon Is (Google Homepage)
Every time you open your browser, a familiar page will show up. For many this may be the installation default, MSN for all you poor IE users, but for those that like to tinker and go against the norm it is more likely to be something a little more useful. In the past my default homepage was the good old google search page. The speed at which it loads, it's search mastery and the pretty colours, were all great reasons why this was the case. As I started to venture into the world of Web 2.0, I started to hear more and more about personalised homepages, integrating a plethora of features into a personal launch pad for online pleasure. Eventually I found my cursor clicking on the personalise link and customising google to my liking.
To start out I simply added in my gmail account, the local weather and all the standard news lists and odd stuff that grabbed my attention. It was great having all of that stuff available as soon as Firefox started and due to the way loading process used there was no noticeable increase in startup time. As yet more time passed, I began to branch out and look at what else this new magical portal could offer. The official content directory presented a bunch of options, but there's only so many times you can play Pacman before the screen real estate starts to look wasted. Further delving revealed Google Reader, a beta tool from Google labs that allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds (which I will discuss later this week) and display them on your homepage. As I began to sign up to more and more Web 2.0 services I began to discover and add related modules into my homepage. A great source for these is Google Modules, providing a list of unofficial user created content. Pretty soon I was confronted by an enormous number of boxes both useful and distracting.
As enjoyable as it was having a screenful of amusing diversions, I figured my time could probably be better spent doing what was originally intended when I double clicked the fox. Luckily, just as my boss was beginning to look for my replacement, Google released a new tabbing feature. I quickly moved the less useful modules to an Odds & Ends page, narrowly avoiding a brush with unemployment. So now when I jump online I can check my e-mail, calendar, a couple of news feeds and the weather and if I'm looking for a distraction switch to the 'naughty' stuff.
It may not be the most beautiful of homepages, or even the most feature packed, but its a start.
Google's Personalised Homepage is an effective and useful replacement for the old school 1.0 pages of the past. I'll continue to investigate alternatives, such as Pageflakes and Netvibes, but I cant see myself changing again before next week at least.
Categories: Google, Homepage, Web2.0
To start out I simply added in my gmail account, the local weather and all the standard news lists and odd stuff that grabbed my attention. It was great having all of that stuff available as soon as Firefox started and due to the way loading process used there was no noticeable increase in startup time. As yet more time passed, I began to branch out and look at what else this new magical portal could offer. The official content directory presented a bunch of options, but there's only so many times you can play Pacman before the screen real estate starts to look wasted. Further delving revealed Google Reader, a beta tool from Google labs that allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds (which I will discuss later this week) and display them on your homepage. As I began to sign up to more and more Web 2.0 services I began to discover and add related modules into my homepage. A great source for these is Google Modules, providing a list of unofficial user created content. Pretty soon I was confronted by an enormous number of boxes both useful and distracting.
As enjoyable as it was having a screenful of amusing diversions, I figured my time could probably be better spent doing what was originally intended when I double clicked the fox. Luckily, just as my boss was beginning to look for my replacement, Google released a new tabbing feature. I quickly moved the less useful modules to an Odds & Ends page, narrowly avoiding a brush with unemployment. So now when I jump online I can check my e-mail, calendar, a couple of news feeds and the weather and if I'm looking for a distraction switch to the 'naughty' stuff.
It may not be the most beautiful of homepages, or even the most feature packed, but its a start.
Google's Personalised Homepage is an effective and useful replacement for the old school 1.0 pages of the past. I'll continue to investigate alternatives, such as Pageflakes and Netvibes, but I cant see myself changing again before next week at least.
Categories: Google, Homepage, Web2.0
posted by Adam at 9:22 PM
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