Google today updated its iGoogle homepage by improving its integration Google Reader, Gmail, and Google Finance. These gadgets can now make use of iGoogle's canvas feature, which allows a gadget to take up the whole screen. This is especially useful for the Google Reader and Gmail gadgets, which now bring almost all of the features of the actual services to iGoogle.
Google has also updated the iGoogle interface and a number of content providers have updated their gadgets to make better use of the canvas view as well.
The Gmail gadget now allows you to perform some of the most common email tasks, including actions like send or reply to messages without having to leave the iGoogle page (though you can also launch the full Gmail client from iGoogle).
iGoogle now makes use of Google Reader's interface for browsing your RSS feeds. Thanks to this, iGoogle users can now share items directly from iGoogle and browse through their feeds just like they would in the regular Google Reader.
Google has also made some changes to the iGoogle interface. The tabs at the top of the page have now been replaced with a navigation bar on the left side of the screen, for example. This is especially useful if you use a lot of gadgets that make use of the canvas view.
Some content providers like the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have also updated their gadgets to make use of the full-screen canvas view.
Google is clearly positioning iGoogle as a one-stop resource for all Google products. So far, it shared its fate with most other similar services like Netvibes. It was a good homepage for your browser, but the gadgets and widgets on the site didn't provide enough functionality to keep you coming back during the day. Now, iGoogle is basically becoming an interface to the rest of Google's product line and has instantly become far more useful.
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Anyone know of a way to use your google apps email with igoogle?
Posted by: Zee
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October 16, 2008 11:51 AM
@zee - that would be nice - there are a few widgets that check your mail, but nothing as nice as the real gmail integration: http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=mail&root=%2Fig&dpos=top
Posted by: Frederic Lardinois
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October 16, 2008 12:43 PM
The summary on by default makes each feed box too big. I had to disable that. Personally. . .I like the way it used to look better than this. :(
Posted by: FSP | October 16, 2008 1:31 PM
Is this what broke today? What a shock, and now totally unusable. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Can anyone suggest something that will perform the way iGoogle used to?
Posted by: JB Tait | October 16, 2008 1:52 PM
Anyone know how to hide/get rid of the now-huge navigation bar at the side? It takes up WAY too much space. Why the heck did they switch to that method, instead of a nice, slim little tab bar? I need to find a way to hide it/make it go away, or I might not be able to keep using iGoogle (which would be a shame)...
Posted by: Josh Bancroft | October 16, 2008 2:12 PM
I'm happy to see some of these changes, since I wrote google an email a few months back asking for better gmail integration... but from a usability point of view this new look definitely needs some polishing. My biggest complain is that something about it isn't nearly as readable. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but I think they need more whitespace. And I definitely agree that they should include the ability to minimize the sidebar.
Posted by: Tony Trupp | October 16, 2008 4:45 PM
This SUX. Give use a choice to us the old layout!!!!!
Posted by: kurt | October 16, 2008 7:32 PM
As you may see on the Web Search Google Group, there is widespread protest over the new design: too much wasted gray space at left. It seems another BWC on Google's part, and a waste of time for users having only one "tab".
A Netvibes homepage, on Firefox, with a toggle-able Sage sidebar, and Delicious widget, seems much more attractive.
Posted by: fjpoblam | October 16, 2008 7:36 PM
Check out how these folks feel about the changes.
http://groups.google.com/group/Google_Web_Search_Help-Enthusiasts/topics
Posted by: kurt | October 16, 2008 8:10 PM
Having gadgets grow to the full canvas is awful. It destroys the point of the igoogle page.
Posted by: Rob Colburn | October 16, 2008 9:03 PM
Hey y'all!
We just announced the availability of our iGoogle Gadget (http://doodle.ch/blog/english/2008/10/16/mydoodle-for-igoogle/) and were planning to provide a canvas view as well eventually. Having read your comments, I'm not so sure anymore.
Would you recommend waiting to see how things develop or is the canvas view here to stay? - Thanks!
Posted by: Paul E. Sevinç, Doodle AG | October 17, 2008 12:12 AM
I don't like the new version much
1. Tabs on the left take up too much space unless you have a widescreen
2. Can't seem to drag gadgets to other tabs
3. It now takes 2 clicks to max/minimise
4. I only want to see headlines on my feeds. Showing extra text makes it all too big
5. Not too impressed by the new Gmail gadget
I've been using iGoogle for a while now and it has generally been a great way to consolidate most of what I need onto one page with minimal fluff. I'm using the UK version that is still on the old version for now, but I expect that will change too in time.
BTW I was going to log into RWW with OpenID, but it got lost in a maze of redirections and kept failing.
Posted by: Steve | October 17, 2008 6:23 AM
Booted up my eeepc this morning and igoogle was a bit of a shock. Well an awful mess on an 800x480 screen (or sharing space on a 1680x1024 screen.
Unusable.
Well I wasted an hour or so on a hunt on how to revert. As this was fruitless I followed the leads that eventually ended on Netvibes. Yesterday I was a very happy iGoogler. Today I find something that serves my purpose even better.
This must be a deliberate ploy by Google to avoid World Domination. I was basing some crucial systems on Google Calendar. But if they can spring fundamental changes like this at no notice - I need to revert to something I can trust more. Interesting to see if Google will have second thoughts.
Posted by: Stuart | October 17, 2008 10:24 AM
I don't like the left tab at all, what was Google thinking???
Posted by: Erv Server | October 17, 2008 2:53 PM
Duncan's dead-on on this one
Google, Please Give Me My Old Home Page Back
Wonder if we could make a petition or something...not that they'd listen
Posted by: KevinCA | October 17, 2008 3:17 PM
I like the cnavas view (note that you can 'minimize' the expanded view back to the widget view again), but I didn't like the tabs taking up so much space on the left. And i've never really liked how much space I lose on top. So...
http://userstyles.org/styles/11363
That page has a Stylish stylesheet that removes the stuff I don't like. If you don't use Stylish there's a Greasemonkey script there that does the same thing. Remember, people, the entire POINT of web 2.0 is that you can take control - so do that. Post like Duncan's whining take longer to write than it took me to find that userstyles page and actually solve the issue. Don't just sit there and take what people give you - make it your own.
Posted by: rick | October 17, 2008 4:19 PM
One note - that userstyles page isn't my work. I reread my comment and it could imply that which would be unfair to the actual author of the scripts there.
My point isn't that YOU need to create such things but that with so many of us out there creating things, finding ways to tailor the web to your vision of it isn't hard.
Posted by: rick | October 17, 2008 4:22 PM
I read about this site on John Chow http://www.43marks.com - its like Igoogle but better cuz you can add you own bookmarks and the bookmarks can be websites not just gadgets and RSS feeds although you can upload your favorite RSS feeds too. Its free and totally customizable. Plus you don't have to login to see your bookmars and RSS feeds
Posted by: Bobby | October 17, 2008 5:21 PM
There is a petition going to "roll back" the design changes. http://www.petitiononline.com/igoogle/petition.html
I've been psyched about the Tmobile G1, and now. . .well, my faith in google is a little shaken by this unilateral move.
Posted by: Don't Be Evil | October 17, 2008 5:45 PM
I also hate the content bar on the left..it makes the columns to narrow. Maybe back to Yahoo..will wait and see if they allow you to remove it. Do not like the new gmail either..hard to read..fonts are gone? Don't know yet.
Posted by: CJ | October 17, 2008 10:27 PM
Wow, I can get Gmail in a gadget with most of the functionality of the real thing, that will save me having to open another window to use it... Hang on, I have tabbed browsing now! I can ditch iGoogle and have all these great pages available under tabs in my browser, and have full functionality.
Posted by: Dave | October 18, 2008 2:57 PM
This is a 'feature' I don't need. I liked the way that the gadgets were displayed in the old iGoogle page. I don't need better Reader integration. It was working just fine for me. I could check on political blogs at work without downloading a lot of stuff from the political site. I got the feed with no adverts. Reader is now really hosed up for me.
I won't be using iGoogle anymore.
Posted by: dan robinson | October 18, 2008 7:42 PM
@rick I (#16)- well said!
Posted by: Fabi | October 18, 2008 8:39 PM
My solution to the now useless igoogle homepage I once loved so much? I packed up and moved all my stuff to a new netvibes home and guess what? Even if igoogle decides to at least give users the choice of either the old or the new layout, I see no need to go back. I'm thrilled with netvibes!
I made my fair share of comments at the google groups, signed the petition, etc., but the only thing that google will ever "hear" is loss of users. I deleted my igoogle account and have no plan to return.
Posted by: no more igoogle for me | October 28, 2008 7:59 PM