iGoogle and RSS

So, iGoogle then.

The problem I've always had with iGoogle is that it puts you at risk of information overload. If you're not very strict with yourself you end up overwhelmed every time you open your start page, eyeballs scanning over every inch of the screen. Even though "modern" iGoogle has implemented handy tabs, its still ever so tempting to check on every one of those RSS feeds that dumps onto your page.

That said, if you are going to check each information source anyway, or if you might otherwise miss something important or interesting, then of course it is still incredibly useful, especially when you factor in access of your page from wherever you are - particularly nifty if you use your mobile phone for web access.

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of iGoogle is the scope provided by Gadgets - even though each tool or resource is available somewhere else on the web, being able to access them all onto one place is a much more straight-forward way of keeping on top of your electronic life! And a great excuse to play Pac Man again...

Final thought on iGoogle: Back in the day people used to have home pages, a handy source of links to favourite webpages (though when a fellow 23thinger-er mentioned earlier today that she was struggling to find a way to put raw basic weblinks on her iGoogle page, I realised that this was something that Google seemed to have missed - until we found the Bookmarks gadget). People also used their homepages as a way of marketing to the world the type of person they wished to portray (or be!), and this was taken further as blogs and social networks developed. At least with iGoogle it is a resource solely for the "i" - something purely for your own use.

But wait, I seem to have overlooked RSS feeds somewhat in this post. The trouble is that they've become so ingrained into the web the web works that there's nothing much more to say. (A great excuse not to bother!). But undeniably very useful, whether on iGoogle, Google Reader, or whatever may be the aggregator of your choice.