Already synonymous with looking things up on the Internet, Google Inc. is creating a new name for stamping a personal touch on its website with iGoogle.
Google, apparently intent on supplying users with more gadgets than a discount hardware store, has taken another step to increase its value as your starting point for the Web. The Internet giant has released “iGoogle,” the new name for an updated version of its personalized homepage.
The Mountain View-based company shortly plans to debut the new iGoogle logo when it will also introduce a new set of customization tools designed to encourage more people to log in to its Internet-leading search engine more frequently.
Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, acknowledged that Google had undertaken a systematic review of product names and that like Froogle, which recently became Google Product Search; Google Personalized Homepage did not work very well internationally.
Google Gadgets
Google is specifically pushing its Gadget Maker, in which users either can create their own miniportal of sorts without having to know html, or can customize their Google home page with such items as news headlines, a calendar, a loan calculator, and more using some 25,000 existing gadgets.
In addition, iGoogle is going global, reportedly reaching 26 languages across at least 40 countries. iGoogle currently does not have ads like those founds in Google’s search results pages.
The iGoogle brand only will be visible to Web surfers who have chosen to adorn Google’s famously plain home page with an assortment of bells and whistles drawn from an assortment of more than 25,000 modules commonly known as "gadgets"
Most of the gadgets available through Google’s website have been contributed by computer-savvy developers.
Starting with the re-branded iGoogle, wrote iGoogle Software Engineer Sophia Brueckner on the company’s blog, "without having any programming or Web design experience at all, anyone can create Google Gadgets for iGoogle and send them to friends."
The thousands of gadgets, many of which were created by independent developers, include a diary, minigames, Mapquest directions, and more. There are also gadgets that tie into well-known brands, including the TV game show Deal or No Deal and the popular Web site How Stuff Works.
Google hopes to make it easy for just about anyone to customize its website with a do-it-yourself gadget maker. Among other things, simple gadget templates include a photo gadget, a GoogleGram greeting card-style gadget, a YouTube video channel gadget, and a free-form gadget.
The new tool kit will allow people to create gadgets showcasing personal photos and favorite YouTube videos that can then be e-mailed to family and friends so they can be added to their gadget collections.
Additionally, the page themes and images that were introduced last month for the U.S. edition of the personalized homepage are now available for iGoogle editions worldwide. They include a tea house, a beach, a bus stop, and something called sweet dreams, each with soft hues and several with cartoon-like characters.
The team behind the product had originally planned to call it "iGoogle" only to be vetoed at the last minute by Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, said Mayer.
While Mayer said Google had no immediate plans to monetize gadgets directly by selling space on personalized pages, the company clearly sees the value of gadgets to marketers. “We actually think of gadgets as a new unique form of advertising,” said Mayer.
To illustrate why a company might want to put its content into a Google Gadget, Mayer explained, “You can actually advertise to your users at the moment they open their browsers.”
Google’s revitalized home page is another component of its widening set of products that allow users to customize their online experience and add more gadgets.
Earlier this week, the company released the newest version of Google Desktop 5 Beta, which now supports 29 languages and provides several of its own gadgets. Common Google Desktop gadgets include news summaries, weather updates, to-do lists, job listings, photo slideshows, and more.