Make Your Own iGoogle Themes

Published on January 16, 2008 By Zoomba In WinCustomize News

iGoogle is Google's answer to the seemingly ubiquitous portal page competitors like MSN and Yahoo toss at their users. A single page for the user to collect all their most used and referenced information, links and content. I personally use mine for RSS feeds, weather information, daily comics and more. It's a great tool.

Plus, it's almost completely customizable. Content on the page is broken up into blocks, which you can rearrange, reassign etc. Recently, Google added the ability to load one of several themes, changing the general feel of iGoogle, letting you get away from the blue/white of the standard Google design. At first there were only a handful of themes to pick from, but over time they've expanded. Today though they've taken another step in customization. Now users can create their own themes and share them with others.

Using the iGoogle Tools and Themes API, people with an eye towards web design can make their own themes and share them with friends.

So if you're an iGoogle user, or someone with a knack for web design, take a crack at it and let us know how it works out.

Comments

PoSmedley

on Jan 16, 2008

I like the posts on this stuff...but when can we get a review or comparison on some of it from someone? I started messing with PageFlakes since I saw that posted here, now this. I don't wanna try them all!

Same with the social sites...YouTube, Facebook, MySpace..

I would love to see Island Dog or someone do a comparison on these different sites.

ama02

on Jan 17, 2008

Thanks for doing this article.

I've been using iGoogle for a while now, usually the Bus Stop theme (it's fun to see it when the weather gets rough). I have only worked with XML once before, just tweaking some code to customize a photo album. Just downloaded the iGoogle template to check it out, and see if I can make heads-or-tails out of the instructions. There are some cool new themes!

jazzymjr

on Jan 17, 2008

I have been using iGoogle, probably since it first came out...it is my home page. Prior to that, I had to use MSN with all its ads all over everywhere. iGoogle doesn't have ads jumping out at you, in fact, it has no ads! I love the ability to have whatever I want on the page...it is fully customizable. I think the coolest new thing is being able to have your Favorites on the page...that way, even when you are not on your main computer or are using another computer, you have access to all your favorites. It also has tabs for adding other pages. I have google maps on one page, and google news on another. (You can add any page you want..doesn't have to be google stuff.)

The themes are really cool too. I use the Beach theme, and it changes according to the time of day. I think I'll go check out the new tools and themes...would be fun to make my own theme.

Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:

Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums.
Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
It's simple, and FREE!