iGoogle might have a very web’2.0′ish name but it never really managed to make some inroads in the personalized homepage market. I always preferred opening up gmail and google reader in separate two tabs rather than miniaturized versions of the both inside iGoogle. Google has made some significant changes in iGoogle now which has made it deadly and a serious threat to Netvibes and Pageflakes.

Google has now added the functionality of expand gadgets which means users can see the full page as it is of that gadget. For example if you had added the The New Yourk Times gadget in your iGoogle page, then you can now view the full NYimes page inside your iGoogle without you having to open a new tab. The space of personalized homepages had become saturated with Netvibes being the only winner and users would go to iGoogle just occasionally, that too if they had gmail account.

Now that iGoogle has improved its offering by showing the full pages of the content providers, I believe it might give its greatest opprtunity to be the leader in the segment. If you are added the Wall Street Journal gadget on your iGoogle page then you will see the full WSJ page now with ads and all. The revenue of the ads will definitely go to the content provider and you will have to go to the content’s main site in order to read it but it is still a great improvement and I might have to consider starting my day with iGoogle now instead of Gmail and Google Reader.

You guys will have to go to this link in order to see the new functionality on iGoogle.

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