True, iGoogle is still around but not for long. Google has notified users of their customizable start page that they'll be pulling the plug on iGoogle on November 1st. (I wish they'd dump their Spell Check..."customizable" isn't a word? It complains that it's spelled wrong but doesn't offer a correct spelling, so I guess it's not a word. Huh. I kinda think it is. So does Dictionary.com, so there.)
In light of the fact that, yet again with Google, change WILL be OPPRESSED upon us lowly users, I've tried to get used to the most-similar replacement I could find, Proto Page. Here's a screen shot:
It's "okay" but it's no iGoogle. Where even iGoogle's look and feel harken back to the cusp of the Web 1.0 to 2.0 evolution (back in the ancient days of, oh say...2006!), Proto Page is definitely of the 1.0 generation. It's super simplified. Quite speedy to pull up but it looks quite dated due to its olde-fashioned layout. Like an old Geocities web page. A small step up from just simple line after line of HTML text, like this guy's current (yet entirely retro-looking) site. A look still favored by aesthetically-challenged geeks, but so is ASCII for Christ's sake. (Random memory: Remember ASCII art signatures on Usenet? Oh, those were the days! I bet they still use them. Usenet geeks, that is. I wouldn't know, I haven't checked out a newsgroup, like most of normal humanity, since the '90s.)
Also, these widgets are quite limited. Only a few news feeds for example where as iGoogle had like hundreds to choose from. Here in the above screen shot you see the CNN.com world news widget and it lists crap like "Why I'll never ditch my Blackberry." Really?? Since when does filler shit like this warrant being on a list of just 9 headlines as a "top story?" Cryin' out loud.
Here, as a reference tool is a shot of my endangered iGoogle page. Much more pertinent information at a single glance. Oh how I miss you already:
In light of the fact that, yet again with Google, change WILL be OPPRESSED upon us lowly users, I've tried to get used to the most-similar replacement I could find, Proto Page. Here's a screen shot:
It's "okay" but it's no iGoogle. Where even iGoogle's look and feel harken back to the cusp of the Web 1.0 to 2.0 evolution (back in the ancient days of, oh say...2006!), Proto Page is definitely of the 1.0 generation. It's super simplified. Quite speedy to pull up but it looks quite dated due to its olde-fashioned layout. Like an old Geocities web page. A small step up from just simple line after line of HTML text, like this guy's current (yet entirely retro-looking) site. A look still favored by aesthetically-challenged geeks, but so is ASCII for Christ's sake. (Random memory: Remember ASCII art signatures on Usenet? Oh, those were the days! I bet they still use them. Usenet geeks, that is. I wouldn't know, I haven't checked out a newsgroup, like most of normal humanity, since the '90s.)
Also, these widgets are quite limited. Only a few news feeds for example where as iGoogle had like hundreds to choose from. Here in the above screen shot you see the CNN.com world news widget and it lists crap like "Why I'll never ditch my Blackberry." Really?? Since when does filler shit like this warrant being on a list of just 9 headlines as a "top story?" Cryin' out loud.
Here, as a reference tool is a shot of my endangered iGoogle page. Much more pertinent information at a single glance. Oh how I miss you already:
