Google Adsense College

Have you heard of iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage? Well, tens of millions of users have, and with a just a little bit of effort you can share that traffic.

iGoogle allows users to bring together their favorite content and services from around the web by adding feeds and gadgets to their Google homepage. Let’s start with the basics of what feeds and gadgets are, and how you can create them for your own site:

• A feed is a format that allows your content to be delivered (and subscribed to) on the Web. This allows users to preview your content wherever they go, making it easier for them to find out whats new on your site and reminding them to come back. To learn more about feeds, check out Feedburner for everything you need from basic set-up to advanced performance tracking and monetization tools.
• Gadgets are mini-applications created using simple HTML and JavaScript. You can present more complex information in a gadget, such as a calendar, and also help users interact with your content, for example through search. To find out more about gadgets, check out the Google Gadget Center.

  

Once you have a feed or gadget — and for those of you who already do — you can start promoting it. As a first step, make sure to submit your feed or gadget to the iGoogle directory. Promotion can help new readers find your content and deepen engagement with your existing readers every time they visit their iGoogle page — all of which can lead to more traffic for you site.

Don’t stop there, though. Gadgets and feeds are ranked in the directory according to popularity, so make sure to feature your gadget or feed prominently on your site. One easy way to do so is with the ‘Add to Google’ button. Simply fill out some basic information, insert a small snippet of HTML into your site, and you’ll be ready to go.

Want to find out more about how to raise awareness of your feed or gadget? Take a look at our step-by-step guide.

Tags: adsense digg, FeedBurner, Google Gadget Center, iGoogle

Posted by Kevin Tom, iGoogle Product
Manager

Since we launched themes on iGoogle last March, we've enjoyed
seeing how people have connected with them. For instance, we've
gotten fan mail for the "fox in the teahouse" theme, and
seen some great blog posts generated when folks discover the Easter
egg for each theme.

Users and developers alike have been clamoring to know when they
can develop themes for the iGoogle homepage, and we're happy to
say that today is the day! Whether you like outer space, cartoons,
dogs, or anything else, you can now create your own theme and help
personalize iGoogle for millions of people.

The Themes API lets you customize many portions of the iGoogle
page. Your theme can also update the page's design based on
variables, such as the time of day or location. This makes it easy
to create a narrative that unfolds throughout the day, a landscape
that changes as the sun rises and sets, or an abstract image that
becomes more complex.

Anyone who can build a website can create an iGoogle Theme. We
worked with designers Yves Behar, Mark Frauenfelder, Troy Lee, and
John Maeda to create some href="http://code.google.com/apis/themes/#Examples"
id="yz53" >custom iGoogle designs to show some great examples of
the types of themes you can create.

href="http://google-code-updates.blogspot.com/2008/01/igoogle-themes-api.html" >
Read more on the Google Code Blog and href="http://code.google.com/apis/themes" >start creating your
theme.

onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/R42m_qNhpVI/AAAAAAAAAZE/xd4AqtQEd4g/s1600-h/iGoog2.jpg" >

Tags: , iGoogle, Kevin, launched, ManagerSince, Posted, product, Tom

Posted by Jessica Gray, Software
Engineer

Earlier this week, iGoogle launched in 13 new languages, bringing
the total number of supported languages to 42 and the total number
of country domains supported to over 70. For those of you who
don't know, href="http://www.google.com/ig?source=igbp" >iGoogle is a
personalized version of the Google homepage that lets you select
the content that matters to you most from across the web and
arrange it in a way that you find useful and fun. People rely on
iGoogle to save time by putting all the information and services
they need in one place. They also use it to discover new content
through the iGoogle
gadget directory.

With this launch, more than 99% of Internet users can take
advantage of these features in their native language, which is
really exciting for us. We're particularly curious to see what
iGoogle ends up looking like in these new languages. For example,
who would have guessed that 'Tu Nombre en Japonés' (Your
name in Japanese) would be among the top 20 gadgets in Chile and
Spain? (Mine is Jえすしか, by the way.) Because users and developers
ultimately decide what iGoogle will look like in each of these new
domains, we can't be sure what will be popular, which is part
of the fun.

If you're a developer who speaks one of the languages below,
now is a great opportunity to get your cool gadget idea out to a
fresh audience. For more information, visit our href="http://www.google.com/apis/gadgets/" >Gadget APIs page.
Who knows, maybe it'll be the next 'Tu Nombre en
Japonés.'

onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_7ZYqYi4xigk/RxacXIw7qrI/AAAAAAAAAKY/uSXYaxNDTmw/s1600-h/spain_large copy.jpg" >
height="1" width="1" />

Tags: , EngineerEarlier, Gray, iGoogle, Jessica, Posted, software, week