Google Front Page: Don't Forget to Customize

When I discovered that Google added another feature to the custom Google front pages I realized that even with all these custom settings and tools still so many people are not using Google's front page to its full potential.

How To Personalize Google

All you need is a google account (You have one if you use Gmail) and an internet connection. Then instead of going to http://www.google.com go to http://www.google.com/ig .

If you haven't already log'd into Gmail or any other Google related site you can by clicking the login link at the top right hand corner. After entering your password you'll be brought back to the personal Google Front Page and a few selected gadgets will be displayed below the Google Search field.

Pick Your Gadgets

Google has made it easy to pick the simple gadgets that you want on your front page. If you don't like what they've selected, simply click the close 'x' and the gadget will be removed from your site.

To the top right there will be an Add Stuff link that will display a number of interesting, entertaining, and productive Gadgets that you can add to your Google Front Page. You'll also links around on other people's websites about how to add their custom Gadgets to your website to bring you the Personal information you want.


Newest Features

New features to the Google Personal Front Page include a tab option, where you can add a number of different tabs that you can label and add a number of other gadgets too. Google will also offer to help you populate a new tab based on a topic of your choosing.

Today, Google also added Themes to their front page. A new link will appear on the right side of the page next to the Add Stuff link and will allow you to pick from 1 of 7 themes. These themes include interesting features and will update with the time of day for your location. Just another way to give Google Search a Personal Touch.

Great Gadgets

I've added and removed a number of gadgets from my front page. Overall I like to keep things simple but four gadgets I have kept are:

1. Gmail - I love seeing a brief snapshot of my inbox and can quickly decide if its something I need to look at or it can wait until I have more free time
2. Weather - I like to see what the overall weather will be like for the next few days. I still go to Weather.com for when I'm looking for more information
3. Google Talk - I mentioned this new feature previously. I love being able to sent a quick note to any of my contacts from any web browser, and being able to see who is available right when I load up my webpage.
4. Rememberthemilk.com To Do List - this is a great tool, that lets me manage the number of things I need to do and stay on top of everything right from my front page.

Google Adds Ads

Over the weekend, Google announced that they were adding to their internet, tv, newspaper, and radio advertising efforts. Adscape is the newest acquired company by Google and was one that was pushing its way into in game advertising.

Adscape's site, now showing a FAQ about the Google acquisition, explains:

"Adscape Media is a small in-game advertising company based in San Francisco California. Adscape Media offers dynamic delivery of advertising with plot and storyline integration - making its solutions a truly interactive marketing platform. Adscape Media supports sophisticated demographic and geographic targeting and also provides a robust reporting interface for marketers."

In game advertising is a new approach, and Google must find a significant amount of value in the method to purchase a company with no significant track record in a new approach to advertising.

Use Technology to Help you Loose Weight

It seems that so many people in the world have gotten themselves out of shape and over weight and are now looking for the quick and easy way to loose weight and be healthy again. Unfortunately, the quick and easy ways usually don't work or last a lifetime. Loosing weight takes changing your habits and replacing them with new ones. This is where technology can help you out.


TRAINEO.COM

A new free website has started to grow in popularity that lets people monitor their dieting progress. Its a great web 2.0 application that allows you to keep track of your daily diet, workout, weight, and even a few custom fields of your own (I've set one up to monitor my sleep habits) to help you get skinny and healthy again.

In addition to giving you free access to weight management application, traineo.com also gives you a custom site on the web where people can type in your url and see how you're doing on your dieting. The website focuses on receiving motivation from others and being accountable to your weight loss goals. You'll select 4 motivators who will receive weekly emails updating them on your progress, and also the ability to leave you messages on your custom site to help you stay motivated.


THE TRAINEO COMMUNITY

Traineo.com also includes various workout groups to help you stay active and give you new ideas on ways to help you loose weight. One of the most interesting and most popular groups is one surrounding the Nintendo Wii and how people use its new motion controls to help them get a fun workout everyday.

The site also includes general discussion forums with a wide variety of topics that allow those trying to loose weight a place to discuss their efforts.

Its a nice quick free technology to help you adjust the habits in your life to become and stay healthy.

Google Talk Goes Front Page

Google announced today that they've created a Google Talk gadget that can be added to your customized Google front page. They've brought meebo type web based communication to you.

NEW ADDITIONS

In addition to being able to easily reach your Google Talk contacts you can now also watch Youtube videos right in your chat conversation. Simply drag and drop the Youtube url to your embeded chat conversation, send it, and you and your friends can watch the video together.

This feature also works for Picasa Web album urls.

One of the best new features is the ability to add the gadget to your own websites. You can see an example of this to your right of this page.

iTunes: Find The Name Of The Unknown Track

If you're like me and have a number of songs or mp3 files in your iTunes library that are missing the name, artist, and album and you're not sure who sings it you need to look no further.

ieatbrainz is an application for Mac OSX that uses the sounds from the song to help it determine what song it is and then updates the meta data information for the file.

To update your iTunes library, download ieatbrainz and then after launching the application, select the songs you want to update the information on and it will scan the files, compare them to the musicbrainz database and then display what it has determined to be the name of the song you're looking up.

Be sure to look at each songs because sometimes it will offer a number of options that are potential matches. After you accept the suggested changes from ieatbrainz it will update your iTunes Library with the additional information.

After you've added the missing information, be sure to have iTunes go out and get the related album artwork so that you can browse your library in Full Screen mode on the latest version of iTunes 7.1 .