iGoogle Redirects to the Google Homepage

As promised last year, iGoogle will no longer be available after November 1st. That's today. Google kept its promise and iGoogle now redirects to the Google homepage: http://www.google.com/webhp?nord=1.

iGoogle's original name was Google Personalized Homepage, back in 2005 when the service was launched. It was an extension of the Google homepage that allowed you to add gadgets, feeds and themes. The Google dashboard was a great way to keep up with the things that matter to you: news, weather, mail, calendar, bookmarks, to-do lists and more. These use cases are better served by mobile apps and browser extensions. In many ways, they replace iGoogle gadgets.

iGoogle in 2007:

iGoogle in 2012:

The last day of iGoogle:

The truth is that very few iGoogle gadgets were updated by their developers and many gadgets were broken or didn't work well. Google didn't create iGoogle gadgets for new services like Google+ or Google Keep. iGoogle tried to stay relevant by adding features like social gadgets and canvas view, but they were tied to projects like OpenSocial or Google Reader (discontinued).

Google Now is probably Google's replacement for iGoogle. While Google is the only one that can create cards, a Google Now API could change that. Google Now shows information that's likely to be relevant when you need it using various sources like: Gmail, Google Calendar, Google News, Web History, location services. Google also shows gadget-like cards for searches related to calculations, unit conversions, weather, your mail and much more.

If you still want to use a service like iGoogle, I recommend 2 personalized homepages: Netvibes and My Yahoo. They have fewer gadgets than iGoogle, but they're pretty good. My Yahoo even imports your iGoogle settings (the iGoogle settings page is still available).

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iGoogle's Final Countdown

iGoogle now shows a message like this when you visit the site: "iGoogle will be shutting down in 21 days. Be sure to take a few minutes to backup any important data you may have stored in iGoogle."

The "Learn more" link sends you to this page which explains why "iGoogle will be retired on November 1, 2013". The most popular alternative to iGoogle seems to be Netvibes. Back in 2006, I wrote a post about Netvibes and called it the best personalized homepage. iGoogle has improved a lot since then, while Netvibes hasn't. Netvibes doesn't offer a lot of gadgets, but you can still add feeds, search gadgets, weather, bookmarks, calendars, mail, to-do lists.

A site that looks more like iGoogle and supports iGoogle gadgets is igHome. It's ad-supported and less polished than iGoogle, but it's pretty good.

There's also the new My Yahoo, which has a lot in common with iGoogle. "The refreshed design gives you a sleek, tailor-made starting page to access your email accounts, calendars, stock portfolio, sports scoreboard, weather, Flickr, and of course your favorite content - from Yahoo and around the Web. You can also choose from a range of cool new themes from designers like Oscar de la Renta, Rachel Zoe and Jenni Kayne."

Somewhere between the rise of mobile apps and the fall of desktop gadgets, personalized homepages became less important. Your smartphone has better apps than iGoogle's gadgets, it's always with you and it's better suited for showing information at a glance. There's also Google Now that anticipates your searches, browsers have "new tab" pages you can customize using extensions, smartphones have cool lock screens and some of them support widgets, while wearable devices promise even better real-time updates.

The most popular iGoogle gadgets? Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Translate, Google Map Search, Sports Scores, NYTimes.com, Facebook for iGoogle, Movies, To-Do List, Google News, Google Finance Portfolios, Weather, Sticky Note. Most of them have less than 1 million users and were updated a long time ago. Their corresponding mobile apps have a lot more users and are frequently updated.

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Google Now for Google's Homepage in Testing

It looks like Google Now won't be limited to Android, iOS and Chrome, it will also be added to Google's homepage. Some code from a page that's tested by Google offers more information about this feature.

"Get started with Google Now. Just the right information at just the right time." That's how Google introduces the new feature. "Google Now uses your Home location to show relevant information like weather, traffic conditions, and nearby places," explains Google. You can edit the home location, work location and the current location. Another feature lets you track your favorite stocks.

It's not clear how Google Now for desktop will look, but this screenshot reveals a possible implementation (it's from a Chrome extension developed by Google):

Here's the Google Search app interface for Android tablets (Nexus 10 gallery):

As I mentioned here, Google Now could replace some of iGoogle's functionality. Here's an early version of iGoogle from 2006:

{ Thanks, F. }

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