WHY is google getting rid of iGoogle? So dumb.

[nageov3t]

So instead of being able to easily view a ton of custom feeds at once in my browser on any computer, I'm supposed to install a ton of apps and clunkily navigate through them one at a time? WTF? What modern browser apps are they talking about that will replace iGoogle?

if there's one thing I know, it's that cellphones mean there's absolutely no reason to use a desktop/laptop browser.

/google logic

 

[Sheep]

so... homepage alternatives that don't involve yahoo?

Lifehacker suggests NetVibes and Protopage. I've never used either one so I can't say anything about how accurate their pros and cons of each one are.

http://lifehacker.com/5923751/two-e...ges-worth-trying-now-that-igoogles-going-away

 

[ultimatebob]

so... homepage alternatives that don't involve yahoo?

Myway.com has had a customizable ad free news portal years before iGoogle even existed.

It's non-removable search bar has a bad habit of changing itself from whatever search engine you configure it to be back to Ask.com without asking, though... which is really lame.

 

[tefleming]

Lifehacker suggests NetVibes and Protopage. I've never used either one so I can't say anything about how accurate their pros and cons of each one are.

http://lifehacker.com/5923751/two-e...ges-worth-trying-now-that-igoogles-going-away

+1 for netvibes.

 

[rh71]

Google just loves fragmentation :whiste:

they're probably so big now that they need a whole board to decide to remove any parts of their offerings. And then there's a period which it must remain after that decision has been made. The tape is probably very red there.

I just use the Speed Dial as my start page... let's me pick where I intended to go with a single click. I think what you people mean by a "start page" is a "news" page.

 

[Dankk]

Like many others in this thread, I've had iGoogle as my homepage for years.

I still don't quite understand the need to get rid of it, but... ah well. Time to find a new homepage (next year, anyway).

 

[darkswordsman17]

Widgets were supposed to be the big thing that would provide all of this functionality but they're kinda footnote and really were precursors to apps (which is basically just more in depth widgets that you grant full focus to).

A start page with apps that had a setup like the 360's "blades" for each major app, so that you could quickly flip through them, with some notification system I think could be pretty interesting. You can kinda setup Chrome for something like that but it needs more tweaking to be great.

Another thing I'm curious about is, for the people that use iGoogle, have you tried and if so how do you feel about Windows 8? Seems like a lot of the main Metro interface is setup to provide this kinda stuff like the home screen of mobile OSes. Although I think some of you want that without it having to launch/run/focus each program.

 

[darkswordsman17]

they're probably so big now that they need a whole board to decide to remove any parts of their offerings. And then there's a period which it must remain after that decision has been made. The tape is probably very red there.

I just use the Speed Dial as my start page... let's me pick where I intended to go with a single click. I think what you people mean by a "start page" is a "news" page.

I think its more than that, they want to be able to customize it (choose what news), message notifications, as well as have functionality like chat (don't have to use the client program), multiple weather feedback, and other features. All of that without needing other programs or having to go check the individual website.

The more I think about it the more baffling it is. Also, why Google didn't make this one of the key aspects of +, and also why they took this concept and went way overboard with it with Wave (actually the problem with wave is they were trying to force amalgamation of stuff when people would prefer simpler separate but condense stuff like iGoogle offers, they don't want to have their e-mail/IM/everything else just thrown together where they have to sort everything), and now they're basically shuttering this. I think the biggest issue is they didn't do enough to market this. I think there's a lot of people that would have used this instead of Yahoo if they'd have known about it.

Yahoo is just a clusterfuck mess compared to this. Ads all over (and often big annoying ones if you don't use AdBlock). Lots of pointless video for 30 second news so they can put a 30 second commercial in front. Poor interfaces (I used to visit their Sports section but its a mess now too, and way too much garbage, which wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't for the fact that the interface makes it hard to tell what's worth it and what isn't).

 

[gmaster456]

I tried to like it. But I couldn't.

 

[nageov3t]

Widgets were supposed to be the big thing that would provide all of this functionality but they're kinda footnote and really were precursors to apps (which is basically just more in depth widgets that you grant full focus to).

on my cellphone, I'd say widgets make igoogle irrelevant.

on my PC, not so much... widgets may be cool, but I almost never see my desktop after turning my computer on. dual screens and maximized windows in each one (typically a video game or movie on one screen, web browser on the other), so even with the most functional apps I'm not going to see them unless they're integrated into my browser (ie: as a home page)

 

[KeypoX]

Damn, just saw this. That sucks, igoogle is my homepage

Yeah me too and after using it for i dunno 6 or so years. I just added a new widget yesterday...

 

[Printer Bandit]

i'm liking protopage so far :thumbsup::

http://protopage.com/

 

[GoodRevrnd]

I did not care for iGoogle very much, but it did 3 very important things. I still had my google searchbar on the home page, my email was staring back at me every time I opened the browser, and it displayed my calendar tasks (shitty as google calendar may be). I don't know what to do about the email. Discreet clients piss me off quite a bit or fail to have good calendar integration, but if I have to load up gmail separately every time I will forget to check it too often. The iGoogle GMail widget was terrible, but at least it forced me to look at my email regularly.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I love my igoogle :/

 

[Kelemvor]

Finally got around to trying NetVibes yesterday and it's pretty cool. Super easy to configure and a ton of preset "themes" you can choose from. Only takes a couple seconds to set it up.

Probably what I'll be sticking with.
http://www.netvibes.com

 

[tboo]

20 days left!!

 

[_Rick_]

what about desktop widgets instead?
With virtual desktops being mainstream on Android (kinda), having a "web" desktop screen with the correct widgets should work.

 

[todpod]

Time to change i guess, boo

 

[shabby]

Lifehacker suggests NetVibes and Protopage.

Switched to netvibes, now if only i could get rid of that google search bar which takes up space.