When the Google search engine was launched back in late 1998, it didn’t take long before it became clearly obvious that it would revolutionise the Internet search domain, forever.
The Google search page quickly became my new home page; however, initially it was not because of their search and unique ranking algorithms but mainly due to the fact it was also one of the fastest loading web pages on the Internet (at the time and to my knowledge). This was particularly tasty to me since at the time I was also connecting to my ISP via an external 56K modem (oh the good old days) and would therefore not even have a home page set at all, but instead have a blank page display upon launching my browser.
One key factor for me with web browsers at the time (and even today) is that, when launched, I have a page displayed in the quickest possible time. The thought of having to wait for any extra overhead would make me cringe. It baffles me in fact that people still use heavy, bloated and rich media content infested pages as their home page.
In mid 2005, Google launched iGoogle, an enhanced personalised Google home page that allowed all sorts of features and gadgets to be utilised. Creating such a page required that you have an account with Google (or use an existing account like GMail) and begin adding the desired items to your new home page.
Now I know iGoogle is nothing new to most, but still I find those that use it merely because the facility is available to them. This typically results in a bloated and cumbersome search page whilst ignoring the potential it has to offer.
While I’ll admit that most of the items you can add are pretty gimmicky and quite honestly, useless, one feature that I do find particularly useful is the ability to add RSS and Atom feeds. If it’s one thing I do a lot on the Internet, it’s visiting the many Blogs and news sites that exist and to be quite honest, it has become quite a lot.
iGoogle has allowed me to conveniently stay up-to-date with many of my favourite sites with me only having to launch my browser. This is no doubt (at least in my mind) the ultimate RSS/Atom feed reader and before anyone thinks this goes against the speed in which the page loads, it does not. If a connection to a feed is delayed, this will not hamper the page loading time, but instead a “loading…” message is shown at the place holder in which the feed is to be displayed and of course the availability of broadband really helps :-).
Here is a screen shot of my current iGoogle page to give an idea of how useful it can be as an RSS or Atom feed reader and even local weather information.
This is just the first in a series that will help you efficiently enhance your web surfing experience. Next time I’ll cover some useful ways that Firefox can be used to make your bookmarks more convenient.
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