Google personalisation with iGoogle

In a tech climate where flexibility and personalisation are both ranked highly in terms of consumer demand, Google Inc. has this week begun pushing its own boundaries with iGoogle, which will allow users to widen their personal preferences and creative input, a move that sees the California-based giant shrugging off its largely default search engine image.

Aspects connected to the personalisation expansion of iGoogle will see users able to distribute photographs, (blog-style?) text, favourites lists, and other personal and creative elements, as well as being provided with a unique and personalised Net view built around their physical location and amassed search archive – should they allow Google access to the details of their search history.

"We want to personalise the traditional notion of search," commented Sep Kamvar, lead engineer for iGoogle, to reporters gathered at Google’s HQ. "I am an eclectic person. But everyone is. We can't go about designing products for the average person."

So, we may soon need to bid a fond farewell to Google's classically simple and internationally recognized homepage as more fresh and personally interactive design elements are injected into Google's structure - not to mention Web page designs implemented to aid users in bringing their own personal content to the eyes of the masses.

Regardless of how it chooses to tiptoe around the obvious, Google's personalisation expansion smacks heavily of a tactical sidestep into the growing social network arena where the likes of News Corp's MySpace, placed alongside Flickr and Photobucket generally hold sway. For example, Google’s integration of its “Gadget Maker” feature means that users will be swiftly able to upload imagery merely by completing a simple Web form (without needing to have prior knowledge of coding), while other templates will see users expanding their input to sending virtual greeting cards and crafting creative and informative profiles crammed with personal info and favourites.

"I look at personalised search and I think it is one of the biggest advances we have had in the last couple of years," commented Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP in charge of search and user experience, during a related news briefing. Mayer also offered that the new expansion would serve well on the back of the tens of millions of Web users already taking advantage of Google’s established personal homepage feature.

iGoogle’s product manager, Jessica Ewing, has this week revealed that the iGoogle personalised Web search will be available in 40 countries spread across 26 languages, which is a boost of 18 user nations and a further 11 languages.
Source :http://tech.monstersandcritics.com