Fashioning the Web as an increasingly customized experience, Google on Tuesday launched a new personalization initiative dubbed "iGoogle."
The brand represents a new set of
customization tools designed to encourage users to log in to its home page, which can include a plethora of features, including news, weather, personal calendars--and of course, search.
Like any
Web site, Google can more effectively tailor ads and search results to users logged in to its system by tracking behavioral data like search queries and viewing habits.
The iGoogle logo will only
be visible to users who opt-in to Google's personalized home page. There they can choose from more than 25,000 modules, or "gadgets," many of which have been created by independent Web developers.
Among other new features, the tool kit lets users create gadgets displaying personal photos, writings, lists, and favorite YouTube videos, which can be emailed to family and friends who can then
feature those gadgets on their own iGoogle pages.
A "Gadget Maker" now helps users to publish their content without the use of complex computer code like HTML. In addition, Google introduced a
geographic aspect to search results based on a user's location.
Google, which has offered personalization features for nearly two years, says "tens of millions" of users have created personal
pages to date.
Google's growing ability to track users' behavioral data has raised privacy concerns for years. But those worries clearly have not scared away users who increasingly rely on
Google's services for--among other things--effective Web searching.
Last week, the company started to encourage Google toolbar users to turn on the search history capability, making each search
reflective of prior searches so that a frequent car searcher looking for Saturn might get pages returned for the car rather than the planet.
In March, Google surpassed Microsoft as the world's
most trafficked Web property, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google's site, including recently acquired video-sharing star YouTube, attracted 528 million visitors worldwide compared with 527
million for Microsoft.
With Google's move, along with similar efforts by Yahoo and AOL, analysts see customization as a key strategy for portals going forward.
"We may ultimately see these
home pages become completely personalized," analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Intelligence told OnlineMediaDaily last week. "I think that's the direction the portals are going in even if users
are slow to adopt it."