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iGoogle, do you?

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iGoogle (formerly Google Personalized Homepage and Google IG), a service of Google, is a customizable start page similar to My Yahoo! and Windows Live Personalized Experience. You can login from www.google.com or www.google.com/ig using your Google account. Its features include the capability to add web feeds and Google Gadgets.

I started using iGoogle about a year ago but only changed my theme to make it pretty. Recently I started to add web feeds from various blogs to keep updated on different technology. I added Larry Ferlazzo's blog which is for teaching ESL, ELL students but it provides great Web sites and technology for classroom integration. He has a best Web sites of the year post that is great for finding a variety of learning tools. I also added Mashable and various gadgets for news feeds, photos of around the world (places I hope to see one day), and weather. It's a nice way for me to get a snapshot of what's happening without going out to search for information. Gmail is my primary personal e-mail account so it's easy enough for me to view my iGoogle page but if you don't use a gmail account, it may not be as useful to have to login to the site to see the information. Anyhow check it out and let me know what you think :)

Comments

Clinton said…
Mahalo for sharing Christy! What a convenient way to see all your information at once. It's almost a necessity these days if you are going to monitor many blogs, news feeds, etc. I can see a portal system like this being useful with our students/participants. They could get all their important customized information without every needing to login to the LMS. Mahalo.
December 11, 2008 at 8:39 AM
Komarey said…
Thanks Christy for sharing. I use gmail for managing my personal emails and google calendar too. I've started applying this application by customizing my page and have subscribed to the same blog. I look forward to getting some information from others institutions that are online as well. Like Clinton said, it would be a great way for all of our students to get all their information all at once. That way we can ensure they have a working google account too.
December 11, 2008 at 12:55 PM
Anonymous said…
Hey Christy,
Yes, thanks for sharing. I have to say that I haven't had the time to play around with the gadgets yet but, it does sound useful. I did check out the "best of blog" that was suggested, so many resources! I can see this information being useful for our CBOCE/OITI teachers. I will definitely be returning to play somemore, soon. :)
December 11, 2008 at 12:56 PM
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