Login:
Password:

Google to Unveil 'iGoogle' Branding

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

April 30, 2007, 8:55 PM

Seemingly taking a page from Apple's naming playbook, Google on Tuesday will unwrap "iGoogle," a new brand for the search company's Personalized Homepage service. News features will arrive alongside the iGoogle site, including a "Gadget Maker" and location based search results.

Google's Personalized Homepage lets users create exactly that: a customized start page for their Web browsing. On the page, users can place "gadgets" containing information they are interested in, be it weather, stock feeds, news feeds from Web sites, and even the current date and time.

The iGoogle name isn't exactly new, as developers of the feature originally planned to name the service as such before the idea was shot down by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Instead, the service was relegated to more generic branding, but remained at the URL: google.com/ig.

Apparently, the surprise popularity of the feature and growth of competing personalized start pages such as NetVibes prompted Page and Brin to reconsider their decision. The company says tens of millions of users have created a personalized homepage, and the feature is growing faster than Google Maps and even Gmail.

In turn, iGoogle will be offered in 18 more countries, making for a total of 40 countries supported with 26 languages.

25,000 gadgets are currently available for the site, says Google, but the company on Tuesday will also release a Gadget Maker feature that will enable users to create their own gadgets without knowing HTML or JavaScript. Seven templates of gadgets will be provided, and users will be able to share their creations with others using the new "My Community" feature.

Moreover, Google is planning to offer users search results through iGoogle that are custom tailored to their physical location. The company is putting huge resources into collecting massive amounts of data on users in order to deliver results that are more likely to interest them. Google recently launched its Web History service that tracks and stores every Web page a user visits for future reference.

Add a Comment (35 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Name (required):

E-mail (required):

Enter Your Comment:

By lunamystry

edited May 2, 2007 - 1:27 PM

Well its all nice and all but it does not work. my page has not worked properly for a while and now i find it may be the browser that my vasity is usinng. :-(

Score: 0

By adrian47uk

posted May 2, 2007 - 6:36 PM

I don't care what it is called, as long as i can still get the normal google.co.uk page, with just the normal search engine text entry, that is all I care about. Google to me is a good search engine and that is all I want from it. If I wanted the other crap I would use Yahoo.

Score: 0

By dnestor

edited May 2, 2007 - 1:35 PM

iGoogle vs MyGoogle
What brand name do you like better iGoogle or MyGoogle?

http://blog.marketandmai...google-vs-mygoogle.html

Score: 0

By ccarey76

posted May 2, 2007 - 11:55 AM

Welcome back to the year 1998 folks...Maybe now we can get our Google in different colors? Bondi Blue Google anyone?. I think Eric Schmidt was spending too much time at Apple because now he thinks he's a iCEO.

Isn't that insanely great!

http://www.noheat.com

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted May 2, 2007 - 11:53 AM

i is the new e

Score: 0

By meatballion

edited May 2, 2007 - 5:17 PM

Except after C

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 2, 2007 - 12:56 PM

It won't be long before it's u or a.

o will be harder.

Score: 0

By wav

posted May 2, 2007 - 5:00 AM

Eh... Apple recently change their name from Apple Computers to Apple... So uhm.. Should it have been iApple? eh

Score: 0

By Secret Agent Man

posted May 1, 2007 - 10:58 PM

Time to go purchase some iTems from the store.

[/homestar-runner]

Score: 0

By wincement

edited May 1, 2007 - 10:33 PM

I don't think you people realize that this isn't necessarily copying Apple. The entry on Google's blog says that this has been the internal name of the page since day one. That's why the link to your personal page has always been: google.com/ig

The "i" is for "I" as in "personal."

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted May 2, 2007 - 7:49 AM

That doesn't fly - doesn't matter what their "internal" name was, nor is it a question of copying Apple. As soon as someone wishes to do branding in public, they need to address the trademark issue. At that point, the question of whether a trademark would be confusing to consumers comes into play.

Score: 0

By The Dave

posted May 1, 2007 - 10:10 PM

iGoogle iIs iThe iDevil.

iWhat iIs iGoing iOn iThese iDays iWith iPeople iCopying iEveryone iElse iJust iTo iBe iTrendy?

iWhat iA iJoke. iStupid iGoogle.

Score: 0

By mhochman

posted May 1, 2007 - 1:49 PM

Feh, once the "igoogle" branding took over this morning, I lost all my content, if i have to set everything up again i'm going to be some pissed.

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted May 2, 2007 - 9:13 AM

I noticed that as well. However, I rarely use the google personalized page, when you have more powerful rss feed readers available, it's kind've a silly product.

Score: 0

By DigitAl56K

posted May 1, 2007 - 11:51 AM

I hate this 'i' branding on everything.

When everyone is doing it, what does it stand for? Nothing! It's "me too" branding. If you are a brand manager suggesting 'i' branding you should be fired. Is that the best you can do?

Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't see an 'iTurd' yet.

BBL, I'm off to use the iInternet...

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 1, 2007 - 12:24 PM

http://www.urbandictiona...m/define.php?term=iTurd

It is slang.

Score: 0

By DigitAl56K

posted May 1, 2007 - 11:58 AM

This is exactly what I'm talking about:
http://www.brookstone.com/store/531707.html

Score: 0

By jbaltz69

posted May 1, 2007 - 11:39 AM

I bet we'll see a lawsuit out of Apple for Google's naming convention on this.

Score: 0

By rsx508

posted May 1, 2007 - 11:02 AM

And if the mystical "Google Phone" ever becomes reality, maybe they'll call it the "iGooglePhone". :)

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted May 1, 2007 - 3:27 AM

"People? You mean 'Sheeple'"

Score: 0

By The MAZZTer

posted Apr 30, 2007 - 10:40 PM

OK, this just seems like they're asking for trouble.

I was wondering what the "ig" in the URL meant though, heh.

Score: 0

By kourge

edited Apr 30, 2007 - 10:15 PM

It is just as correct to spell Netvibes as NetVibes than it is to spell Firefox as FireFox.

Score: 0

By The MAZZTer

posted Apr 30, 2007 - 10:39 PM

Actually... any correct spelling is determined by whoever coined the name... Mozilla calls it "Firefox". I still know what "FireFox" means, but it's not correct capitalization, and Firefox's spell checker flags it as such. :)

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted Apr 30, 2007 - 10:12 PM

I'm surprised they can get away with this. I would have thought that Apple has done a sufficiently good job releasing products whose names all start with a lowercase "i" that an attempt by anyone else to register a trademark starting with lowercase "i" followed by uppercase anything should fail due to the potential for confusion in the marketplace within the same sector (the main reason for denying a trademark to someone).

Score: 0

By rsx508

edited May 1, 2007 - 11:01 AM

The legal phrase is "genericide". It's too late for Apple to mount a viable legal assault on "iWhatever" trademarks. They've let too many go on without a legal challenge. You have to defend your trademark (and show tangible proof of reasonable effort) in order to try that. Other examples include Kleenex, Xerox, and Aspirin. There have been "iWash" clothes washers and driers on sale at Lowes for well over two years now. That's only one example.

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted May 1, 2007 - 10:15 PM

But not a GOOD example!
Trademarks are industry specific. It is quite possible for two companies to have the same trademark if they are being used in two sufficiently different ways that a consumer won't be "confused". It's unlikely that a clothes washer would be confused with an MP3 player (for example) so there's nothing to challenge.

--->There have been "iWash" clothes washers and driers on sale at Lowes for well over two years now. That's only one example.

Score: 0

By rsx508

edited May 2, 2007 - 8:38 AM

Good point. The iPhone debacle was probably a better example of conflicting marks in a given market. However, the original comment was regarding broad use of the "i" prefix alone. I'm sure if Google starts using "i" in front of products that directly (or closely) compete with Apples marked products/services, Apple will spank their attorneys with a wet towel and send them off to the attack.

In any case, it seems to me that they're taking the wrong approach. Why adopt another renown mark approach when the "G" mark was working just fine? GMail, for example. Who knows. Maybe they hired away some of Microsoft's marketing geniuses (let's hope not)

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

edited May 1, 2007 - 12:47 PM

how could someone just trademarks 1 letter. If that's the case, I will go ahead and trademark all the alphabets. Sue every one who use an alphabet in as the first characters, be it people or products.

From now on, you cannot call yourself John, Joe, etc.. your new name is 123zd80

Score: 0

By rsx508

posted May 1, 2007 - 1:28 PM

You missed the point. It's not "one letter". It's the consistent use of a given letter (and letter case) in front of a name. "iWhatever", not just "i". Regardless, it's not trademarked as everything assumes.

Score: 0

By pafinator11

posted Apr 30, 2007 - 10:22 PM

Eric Schmidt is on the Apple board. I'm sure he's talked to Apple about this and if not, I'm sure Google can withstand a lawsuit.

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted May 1, 2007 - 10:32 AM

linksys owns the iphone trademark. trademarks are more pointed towards the name than they are the manner in which things are named. for example, Lindows... now Linspire.

Score: 0

By dhjdhj

posted May 1, 2007 - 11:05 AM

Well, maybe! Although it's the case that Linksys (or rather the company they acquired years ago) got that trademark, they didn't do the necessary ongoing work to PROTECT their trademark. The law says you lose your rights after a few years if you don't show that you're using the mark. That means that Linksys (Cisco) would have to reapply for the trademark and at that point, (as we saw), it's not clear they would be successful because of Apple's usage. That's why (I believe) the spat between Apple and Cisco got settled so easily.

Similarly, Lindows got changed because of concerns that it seemed so much like "Windows" that consumers (not those who hang out in this forum of course) would be confused by the naming and perhaps think they were getting a Microsoft product.

So that's why I'm surprised about iGoogle....unless of course there's some as yet undisclosed Apple/Google partnering going on!

Score: 0

By itanshi

posted Apr 30, 2007 - 9:56 PM

eh, if this doesn't use Google as a verb then...

Score: 0

By ccarey76

posted May 2, 2007 - 11:56 AM

Welcome back to the year 1998 folks...Maybe now we can get our Google in different colors? Bondi Blue Google anyone?. I think Eric Schmidt was spending too much time at Apple because now he thinks he's a iCEO.

Isn't that insanely great!

http://www.noheat.com

Score: 0