There are many sites on the web that allow the user to set up a personal, customized homepage. Google has recently jumped in the ring, becoming more and more competitive. The Google Personalized Home lets you add your own customized content, such as news, RSS feeds, stocks, weather, etc.

I am not a heavy user of the Google Personalized Home page but do use it to quickly get several pieces of information. What makes the Google Personalized Home page stand out is:

1. The Google Personalized Home page is clean and fast with no adds.
2. There is a mobile version that works very well on small devices such as a Palm.
3. The Personalized Home page is extensible. Besides the functionality the default addons (modules) give, you can also add different modules that allows each individual user to customize their page to their liking.

While the Google Personalized Home Page has the standard modules such as a weather forcast, Gmail preview, and RSS feeds, several other modules are worth having. They include the following:

1. Personalized Home – This module allows you to change the look (skin) of the Google Personalized Home page. A user can change the background colors, the column spacing, link and text color, and add a background.
2. Weather Map – Provides a weather map for a given zip code region.
3. Photos from Flickr – Provides a photo gallery/slideshow from Flickr. One large photo or nine smaller photos can be shown at a time.
4. Date and Time – Places a small calendar and clock on the page.
5. UPS Package Tracking – Tracks a UPS package.
6. Del.icio.us – Displays a user’s del.icio.us links with a favicon.
7. US Traffic Information – Displays Yahoo traffic information on a Google map for a given location.
8. Almanac – Calculates the sunrise, sunset and current moon phase.
9. Free Text Message – Send a free text message (US only).
10. Module Manager – A module that allows the user to save their favorite modules in cookies.

Note: There are many more modules available at Google Modules, an unofficial directory of modules to add to your Google Personalized Home page.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.