Have you come to depend on iGoogle as a convenient home page with all of your favorite Google (and other) stuff in one place? Me too. Despite the popularity of iGoogle, Google has decided to discontinue the service after November 1, 2013. This leaves many users scrambling for a new solution. Whether you are an iGoogle user or not, you may find the suggestions below useful.
1. Google Shortcuts
If you are looking for is quick access to Google products, and you use Firefox or Chrome for your browser, this add-on may help. It does exactly what it sounds like – it adds shortcuts for Google services to the top of your browser. You can choose which shortcuts you use by clicking the gear icon. Here’s a clip of what the shortcuts look like on my browser (Firefox):
Warning: the download page is in German, but the settings and operations are in English.
2. Myfav.es
If you don’t need previews of content, just quick links to your favorite sites, this may be the service for you. There are shortcuts for many, many websites available. No account necessary. Here is what the homepage I created looks like:
Chances are, though, that you are looking for a page with gadgets that offers previews of your email, RSS feeds, calendar, etc. Read on for other services that offer a similar experience to iGoogle.
3. igHome
This one is my current favorite. The setup was easy, and in no time I had a functioning page nearly identical to my iGoogle page. As a bonus, shortcuts to Google services are included in a toolbar at the top of the page. If you are using the Gmail gadget, be sure to turn on IMAP in your Gmail settings and approve the igHome application to access it.
4. Netvibes
This one is a bit more complicated than igHome to set up, but more customization is available. Also, more widgets are available than with some other customized home pages.
5. uStart.org
This solution is similar to Netvibes. You may want to experiment with both and see which you like better.
6. MyMSN and MyYahoo
These are personalized homepages provided by their respective companies. If you don’t need any gadgets related to Google (Gmail, Google Calendar, etc.), one of these may work well for you.
7. Skim.Me
This one looks promising, but I’m still waiting for an invitation to get in on the beta.
Have you found another solution? If so, let me know about it in the comments.
Happy computing!
An interesting alternative to iGoogle is also Startific. It displays icons and widgets, connects all your favorite links and all your bookmarks, etc and organize them into a pretty nice interface, like you probably haven’t seen in a quite while.
I don’t know why you haven’t included it in your list, it’s a pretty cool app. Anyway you can check it if you want at http://www.Startific.com
I didn’t include this page because this is the first I’ve heard of it. I took a look and it seems promising – thanks for bringing it to my attention! My replacement for Google Reader was Feedly, but I never did find an iGoogle replacement that I fell in love with. Maybe Startific will be the one!
Hi, thanks for talking about so many options. I have also been looking around for a good replacement for iGoogle.
The other day I found http://startme.com and so far I have really liked it. Mainly because I wanted a start page that was very simple and easy to use. And also it allowed me to import form iGoogle, my browsers and RSS reader.
It is nice to have so many options to check which one suit us better!
I’ve been using ighome for over a week. I like it. There are, however, a number of gadgets That just don’t work. World Time, Fox NASCAR News, NASCAR News… I’m beginning to wonder if they are ready for prime time.
I just found igoogle portal. It looks quite similar, nice graphics, but I have only played with setting it up today so I am not speaking with experience 😉 Do you have any thoughts or experience with iGoogle portal? Netvibes looks good, it also feels like it will take a lot of time to sort out all the options. Change within technology takes more energy than we realize.
I have been trying to export my igoogle content, mostly the widgets but if I choose download, nothing downloads. Any wisdom on how to get widgets to show up in these new home page options?
I haven’t used iGoogle portal, so I’m not sure if I can shed any light on your issue. How are you trying to export your iGoogle content?
When I go to iGoogle>options gear icon>iGoogle Settings>(bottom of page) Export, mine seems to download. Are you using a different method?
what do you see when you look at the download? Mine is a blank page. Makes me wonder what is downloadable from our igoogle page. What kinds of things are you getting in the download?
Michelle
When the download arrives, it is in xml format. I opened it with Notepad, and can see tags and settings for my iGoogle account. What are you trying to open your download with?
Hi, thank you for following up. I didn’t know what to do with it when igoogle shut off so I am still exploring where I will build my new ‘home page’. I am looking at google portal and one other that I cannot remember right now. some of them were so different that I could not sort out how I’d use it and truthfully, I’ve not missed a lot of it. I am currently using my Feedly as my home page and if I need to know things, I use apps on my iPhone. I will want to build something at some point, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t in a place to decide when the end came and it is what it is 😉