Complaints pour in about new iGoogle home page
Google's redesign of its iGoogle personalized home page has triggered an avalanche of complaints from users who dislike the changes.
Since the redesign's launch on Thursday, users have flooded discussion forums and blog comment sections to mostly criticize iGoogle's facelift.
For example, at the Personalizing Google section of the official Google Web Search Help discussion forum, users have created more than 800 discussion threads.
Many of those threads have tens of messages, some even more than 100 messages, a sign that passions are running high among iGoogle users upset that their personal portal page to the Web has been altered in ways they don't like and without any prior warning.
In iGoogle, as in similar "home page" services from competitors, users can aggregate information, "gadget" Web applications and syndicated feeds, so that it serves as a sort of central hub of their online activities.
Personalized home-page services such as iGoogle are increasingly important for Google and its Web portal rivals -- including Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft's MSN -- as they fight it out for the attention of consumers online by consolidating their chosen services on a single page.
The stakes in this space have been raised by the booming popularity in recent years of social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, which have become the central starting points of tens of millions of people's Internet activities.
The main changes to iGoogle include the ability to increase a gadget application to a full screen, something Google calls "canvas view," and a new left-hand navigation bar.
So far, at least one online petition has been started, requesting that iGoogle users get the option to revert their portal pages to the old design, which they preferred.
A common complaint seems directed at the new left-hand navigation column, which many gripe takes up valuable screen real estate and adds little value to their user experience.
Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world
On Twitter now
igoogle
Powered by TwitterOn Twitter now
igoogle
Brian Proffitt
Microsoft/Novell: Breaking Down the Coupon Numbers
Esther Schindler
Drupal's Dries Buytaert on Building the Next Drupal
Tom Henderson
Top Ten General Operating Systems Rants
pasmith
PS3 motion controller delayed; goes up against Project Natal
sjvn
Neolithic Windows security hole alive and well in Windows 7
claird
Perl source code comparison makes for good reading
mikelgan
Cell phones don't create stress or interrupt much
Sandra Henry-Stocker
How to: The Unix Interview
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password
I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
Join the conversation here
Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
- Ubuntu advances: Why Ubuntu server installations will surge in 2010
- Social media marketing: How to make friends with benefits
- More...
Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.
Just say NO to Google
Instead of complaining about the changes, just dump 'em. Dump everything Google - igoogle, search, maps, documents, Chrome- EVERYTHING!That's what I did. Believe it or not, the other search engines out there aren't all that bad now that they have to compete with Google to remain viable. I was a google-holic stuck in the googlesphere for years and this forced change by Google forced me to realize just how much Google has dictated, infiltrated, and obfuscated the way I search and just about everything I do on the internet.
They've become too big and too involved - scarily involved with what people do on the internet. Although I'm not completely on board with the tinfoil hat wearers out there warning against Google - I believe they do have credible arguments about Google and their quest for evilness.
object
I keep getting " Create your own homepage in 30 seconds" or something like that that comes up on my screen and I can't get rid of it. Can't find out how. I use all sorts of " delete" or erase, etc. this pest and can't find the right button. Should be somewhere, but can't find it.iGoogle Weather Column
There is a way around the iGoogle Weather Column. Just type in igoogle.ca, instead of igoogle.com. The Canadian version doesn't have it. The only time it is an issue is when you're buying something locally. I think it's amazing after all these months and thousands of complaints that the Google hierarchy doesn't get it. They think they are invisible. If any one knows of a better alternative, I for one would like to shit-can them simply because they don't listen to their customers, so screw them.