iGoogle was launched in 2005, and it seems Google feel there is no longer a need for a personalised homepage, so iGoogle is retired. Many people are now in mourning for sudden loss of iGoogle, we knew it was destined for the scrap heap as Matt Eichener did explain in a googleblog that Google had started a spring clean and it will mean the end for iGoogle. So, as promised on November the 1st iGoogle was officially retired. Its completely gone, you can’t even see the page anymore, it just redirects to the Google home page.
Instead of accessing this information through iGoogle and your Google Gadget you will need to go directly to the product. If you have lost any data through any third party gadgets you need to go directly to the creator.
WHAT CAN I USE NOW THAT IGOOGLE IS RETIRED?
If you use Google Chrome, there are many apps that you run right from your desk top. There are so many to choose from, there are weather apps, productivity apps, business tools, social tools.
Just in the social tools section for instance.
Which is just a selection.
I think Netvibes is about to find themselves very popular – its very similar to how iGoogle used to be. Its a dashboard for everything that you need, you can have all of your pictures, your apps, tweets, Facebook messages, news items, and it is synced across your desktop, mobile and tablet.
Flipboard is also very similar but more of a replacement for Google Reader you might think. I use Flipboard a lot although it is only for mobile and tablet at the moment. Flipboard is called a personal magazine, filled with the things you care about. You can get all of the news on a topic that you require and easily share to your networks, and also you can see important tweets and facebook posts.
There are other alternatives such as MyYahoo and igHome who are probably rubbing their hands together after iGoogle was pensioned off, but who knows how long these will be around, if the trend is moving away from personalised desktops, we will see.
So, don’t be too upset that iGoogle is retired now, there are many different ways you can get the same information.