We’ve come to the end of the Google Greatness week and we’ve covered a variety of webapps and tips. First we had Google Reader, our trusty and reliable RSS feed reader. We met all of your email needs next with Gmail, followed by the oh-so-colorful Google Calendar, then Google Docs and lastly (but not least) Google Maps. But wouldn’t it be great if you had a central hub for all of this? Well your prayers have been answered, we’re going to look at iGoogle
This is a hub, simple as that. There is no need to jump around for everything, it’s all there on one page (Bing bang boom), You can add ‘stuff’ aka gadgets that you want displayed such as a preview of your gmail inbox, active doc files, your recent rss feeds in your reader, the top videos on youtube, picture of the day, news articles and even the weather! You can add more by clicking on the ‘Add stuff’ in the right of the screen. You can even add a new tab (left) so it’s like running a complete secondary igoogle window (great for those of us that are too organized)You can also add a ‘theme’ to the site, though it’s very limited. You can use some of the tweaks (see helpful links) to make it a little better.
We haven’t covered all of Google’s Greatness this past week, just the tip of the iceburg. Here are some honorable mentions that almost reached Greatness:
- GOOG-411: A free 411 (information) service from Google. A good alternative for those who still pay for this info.
- Google Talk: Google’s instant messenger service. A good product, but still behind in users compared to others.
- Google Earth: It’s the earth. All of it. Google has mapped it out and is now even starting on outer space, a great look.
- Google pack: A Wonderful package of free software. The products are not google-made, but are free and recommended. A great collection.
Some Helpful Links
15 iGoogle Gadgets for Web Word Productivity
Pimp your iGoogle with Greasemonkey @ Mashable