Seven Wizards and the Magic of iGoogle

iGoogle? What’s that I hear you ask? Unless you’re well ahead of me, of course, in which case you will already know all about it, let me explain. iGoogle (formerly known as “/ig”) is the new name for your Google Personalized Homepage. The place for all those Google Gadgets, such as the weather, calendar, newsfeeds, clock, Howto of the Day etc etc.

iGoogle is accompanied by seven wizards to help you work your magic on Google Gadgets, here they are in particular order:

1. Photo album - add up to 7 photos that can be rotated (Googley flickr)

2. GoogleGram - enter seven greeting messages

3. Daily Me - type what you are doing (iGoogle’s version of Twitter)

4. Countdown - count the days until a special event.

5. Simple list - you can use it as a ToDo list, shopping list.

6. YouTube videos - up to 10 videos.

7. Freeform gadget - add an image and some text.

Wizards aside, surely that placement of a little “i” in front of the word Google is going to cause the company problems with a certain mp3 player downloads and computer manufacturer? Maybe, maybe not. Google is probably big enough to ward off any offensive Apple might launch to protect its iPod brand. But, if Apple does not defend its little “i”, then that could be the end of Apple as other companies step up to stick their i’s out. On the other hand, if Apple does go after Google over this trademark issue, then Google could probably swallow Apple whole. That would certainly facilitate the process of port Youtube videos to iPods. Bring it on!