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Thursday, May 03, 2007


Yahoo Inc., the world's second-largest supplier of instant-messaging, has begun offering a new version that works inside a Web browser rather than requiring users to download a separate piece of software.

By dispensing with the need to install and run a separate IM program, Yahoo is looking to reach out to tens of millions of consumers around the world who use the Web in Internet cafes instead of on personal computers at work or at home.

The move also appeals to travelers, business professionals on the go and office workers whose companies block IM software downloads on their internal networks for security reasons.

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007


Google Announce “iGoogle” release

Google announced their new iGoogle Personalized Homepage service. This announcement includes a variety of new features, and more insight into where Google is going with personalized search.

A couple of example of how this might work is that search results can be personalized based on your recent search history. If you have recently searched on "maserati", and then type in "jaguar", the auto results will receive a boost over the animal. Or if you type in pizza, and you have set a default location in Google Maps, you will get information on pizza places near you.

This is very interesting stuff. Of course, it gets complicated in a few ways:

1. Benefiting from the functionality requires that you are logged in to your Google account. Not every one does that all the time.

2. If you are like me, I have multiple Google accounts. Which one am I logged into at the moment? Couldn't tell you.

3. Many machines have multiple users, such as family machines. When my daughter cames into use my computer, I am still logged in.

Now users are supposed to be able to use Gadget Maker without doing any programming all. Google's announcement states: "Anyone who can upload a photo or write an email can use one of Gadget Maker’s seven modules to create a personalized gadget without knowing how to write code".

Here is the list of gadgets that Google is allowing non-programming types to access:

1. A photo gadget

2. Google Gram greeting gadget

3. A mini-blog gadget

4. personal list gadget

5. personalized daily countdown gadget

6. YouTube video favorites gadget

7. Customizable free form gadget

There is a lot of great stuff in here, and its implications on SEO and web marketing will take quite some time to figure out.

The original Google home page is still very clean and simple - but note the "iGoogle" and "Sign in" links at the top right corner of the page. Yahoo, especially, should take note. For people who want a lot of customization of a personalized home page, those simple little links might lure away MyYahoo users in search of a bit more freedom

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