July 14, 2007

7 Things I Love at My Google Personalized Home Page

  

   Basically, a personalized home page is to provide every user with a customizable start page for the World Wide Web.  Maybe some of you would like to have some local traffic information, the latest gossip about pop stars and the current value of Microsoft’s stock.  Anyone can have a Google Personalized Home Page now, with the opportunity of using a variety of gadgets and feeds according to their personal needs.

   Google Personalized Home Page is a product that lets you choose the information you want to visualize, displayed in multiple boxes or a single window.  Goggle had the idea of a personalized home page since 2003, but it took 2 years to put it in practice.   Here are 7 things why users love their Google Personalized Page:

ü      Google themes are much more interesting than the Yahoo ones, for example, even if Yahoo have 5 times more themes.

ü      Google changing theme through the day is a feature that users love. The themes consist in different artistic images or funny images like a beach or a Japanese tea pavilion.  The themes change according to the local hour or the weather.

ü      You can set up your local time settings or add the latest local news.

ü      All the information you want on the Google Personalized Home Page can be chosen from the lists Google suggests you, but also by entering your favorite links in the section “Add URL”.

ü      Content management in Google Personalized Home Page is easy, with options that allow you to drag and drop content blocks.  Another useful addition is the tabbed content. This is used if there are too many boxes, and the tabbed content can be arranged by interest areas.

ü      Google designers have managed to include the regular search features in an effective manner.  You will find Google News, Video or Web features handy and ready to go.

ü      Google Personalized Home Page is a service that allows users to upload on a new platform text documents, photos or other types of content.

   Google allows now its users to visualize their Google Personalized Home Pages from their mobile devices.  The main idea was to offer users the same kind of information available for PC’ but adapted to their mobile devices.  Therefore, the content of the Google Personalized Home Page available for mobile devices was adapted to the smaller screens and the slower connections provided by the mobile networks. 

§         Only phones with an XHTML browser can access the mobile Google Personalized Page.