What is Google.com/ig? I’m not sure yet, but I like it. It’s not the first product to do what it does. It’s an aggregator. But not like most aggregators. It can aggregate a lot of things, including your Gmail inbox, weather, any RSS or Atom feed, and tons of other things that probably don’t have feeds. It’s not perfect, yet. Right now it’s just links. But this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
See, I use three computers every day. I also use news aggregators. But what happens is I have to click through every post at each place. Recently I switched over entirely to Gmail, because I decided web-based email is at a point where trying to synchronize with a desktop client is simply redundant. If I only access my accounts through a browser, it’s always the same. I never have to worry whether Mail.app is going to stall trying to send a message, or if it’s going to “forget” to fetch my new mail. I kind of miss the sleak Apple-ness of using Mail.app, but not enough to go back to being tied to one computer.
So along comes the personalized Google frontpage, and I now have a mobile aggregator that will always be the same wherever I log into it. It will always reflect any changes I have made, and I’ll never have to sync it up with anything else. Not to mention, it’s interactive. It lets you drag things around in a WYSIWYG manner. It’s another Dashboard, but this one can follow you anywhere there is a browser.
I’m frightened of Google. What they’re trying to do with information is very big, and very scary. But damn if they don’t know how to make solutions for modern living.
I’ve been using that Google page since last spring…I really like it, too. Everything’s all in one place. And I agree with you about Mail, too…I was really dissapointed with it. I like Gmail much better.
I’ll probably be using it a lot from now on.