Hands On: Google's Personalized Home Page
http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/003873.html
I should title this blog: "Wherein I transform the paragon of Web efficiency into a cluttered distraction."
What kind of idiot mucks up the spare beauty of the Google interface--the most famous home page in Web history?
That would be me as I Yahoo-ify Google by adding boxes and boxes of links through the company's new Personalized Homepage, one of two new services now available to anyone who logs into Gmail, Google Calendar, or any other Google account. The other new service, Search History, stores your searches on a Google server to make them available on any machine you use to sign into your account.
Upfront Privacy Alert: The option to enable Search History is checked by default when you sign up for a Google account, but some users of Google services may need to turn this feature on manually via the My Account link.
Google promises to keep your past searches private, and the company lets you pause the feature and delete specific entries in the history (click the Search History link to access these and other options), but storing your personal information on a Web server introduces new security risks just the same. Even with Google's promises of confidentiality, anyone using the Search History feature should consider their past searches semi-public information.
Let Google Fill In the Blanks
I've always been a fan of the pure Google design and felt no need to customize it. Out of curiosity, I clicked the Personalized Home link in the top-right corner and found a selection of news stories, my Gmail inbox, and my Google Calendar (if you’re not already logged into a Google account, you'll be prompted to do so to access this information). That's a nice trick, but nothing new.
After adding a Wikipedia search box, Google Map Search, and a tech newswire via the Add stuff link, my personalized home page was looking very My Yahoo-ish as sort of shown in the tiny screenshot below:
I started to feel like a bad cook who keeps adding ingredients to the stew in hopes of transforming it into something edible. It was reassuring to know that the good-old Google was waiting on the other side of the Classic Home link at the top of the page.
Then the "Add a tab" link caught my eye. Lots of Web portals let you drag various specialty content blocks onto your home page, but Google does the heavy lifting for you: Give your new tab a name, such as "computers", and Google fills in the appropriate content for you when you check "I’m feeling lucky." My eyes really started to sparkle after I created a "cars" tab and let Google retrieve images of the 2008 Bentley Brooklands and a 1999 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster.
My attempt to create a "March Madness" tab lead nowhere, but changing the tab's name to "NCAA Basketball" retrieved a link to the tournament bracket information I was looking for (on my break time, of course). Here's what it looks like (if you have eagle eyes to view small screenshots with):
It's too soon to know whether I'll come to miss the old Google and return to the simple search box look. Still, if you use Gmail and other Google services, and you want your home page to present you with a snapshot of your world, you won't beat the Personalized Google.
I'm a little concerned about the effect the new Google look will have on my productivity, however. I almost always head to Google (and every other search engine) with a specific question in mind. What will happen when I get distracted by a link to a news story about the big chicken fat spill that closed down a mile-long stretch of Interstate 20 in Louisiana?
By the time I learn that the Ouachita River is safe from the imminent threat of chicken-fat pollution, I will have forgotten what I was intending to search for in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment