iGoogle

Posted on June 30, 2008

iGoogle has started rolling out its new look to a few users in June and will continue to do so in July, though we’re uncertain how fast and to how many.

But of course you don’t want to wait in line to see the changes after a lot of other folks, you want to check it out now and if you like it, be the one going around telling everybody else your recently discovered secret.

Ok, so if that’s you, here’s the scoop. Pop on over to the iGoogle Sandbox page and sign up as a developer. Don’t worry, you don’t even have to fill out the part that says Company and Developer Language. Just give your name and address and you should be on your way. You can access the sign up page here.

Once the new version opens, assuming you have been using the older version, you can see all of the tabs that used to be on the top are now found in a sidebar on the left of iGoogle. When one tab is focused, you can see all of the individual gadgets by name beneath the tab name. Clicking on one of the individual gadgets will show only that gadget.

The new iGoogle also integrates with Gmail chat, so you have access to the same IM in iGoogle as you do in Gmail.

If you give the new iGoogle a try and aren’t happy with the look, you can still switch back to the standard iGoogle by navigating back to the iGoogle Sandbox link. It won’t be for long, though; even if you don’t enable it through the sandbox, the new iGoogle should be hitting your Google account sometime in the next month or so.