45 replies to this topic

[frapper]

Quote

iGoogle will not be available after November 1, 2013.

It is now considered obsolete. Just like desktops and people over 60. Thanks to "smartphones", tablets, and "mobility". Just when I get it set up the way I want it. So now what? Forced back to My Yahoo? Any other good alternatives that will last more than a year or two, hopefully? Change: it makes me gag!

http://support.googl...&answer=2664197

[securitybreach]

Well it is over a year away and like anything in the tech world, things change rather quickly. I also depend on igoogle and dunno what I do if they got rid of it (as you can see by the screenshot):



Notice I have 6 tabs which are full of various feeds and it scrolls down about 3 pages on each.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

What? No more iGoogle? Aw... shucks. One less tool for Google to bleed us of our data.

[securitybreach]

I know you are kidding but all I use igoogle for are rss feeds. Good luck on getting my data from an rss feed. The search spiders already index all of those feeds anyway.

[Webb]

Google is going out of its way to become irrelevant.

If I weren't so lazy I'd find a better default search page.  I searched Google for "pizza" and the first 10 resutts were links to local pizza places.

I have a Gmail address but I never use it.

iGoogle is great because I can customize it even more with custom css - even as Google started adding tabs and junk to it.

It looks like the only Google product I need is the calendar, which integrates with Sunbird and has all of my business appointments on it.

FWIW Lifehacker took a poll on the best start pages and poses some viable alternatives.

Does anyone know where there's a replacement for Google calendar that will integrate with Sunbird?  I'd love to become Google-free.

[frapper]

That screenshot I posted is just a generic sample, not 'my' iGoogle. Like securitybreach, I use it mainly for customized rss news feeds.
Thanks, Webb, for the alternatives.

[securitybreach]

Well like I said above, this is over a year away and this would not be the first time a tech company reneged on their statements. So we can only hope that there is enough bickering online to stop this change.

frapper, on 03 July 2012 - 09:16 PM, said:

That screenshot I posted is just a generic sample, not 'my' iGoogle. Like securitybreach, I use it mainly for customized rss news feeds.
Thanks, Webb, for the alternatives.

I kind of figured that was a generic image but then I was not for sure, so I posted a shot of mine.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yup. Just kidding... sort of.

Hey Webb... as some here know, I cut the cord to Google a few months back. I avoid all things Google these days. For search, I used Duck Duck Go. It's not bad at all. Give it a shot...

https://duckduckgo.com/

[V.T. Eric Layton]

By the way...

For many years now, I've been using my own locally served home pages. They are custom HTML creations (easy to do using Seamonkey Composer) that have most of the links to sites that I visit daily. Of course, I also use Firefox SpeedDial, which is a wonderful COOL addon. Here are screenshots of my main home and my Linux home pages:





Here's what SpeedDial looks like:

[Neil P]

Webb, on 03 July 2012 - 09:11 PM, said:

Google is going out of its way to become irrelevant.

If I weren't so lazy I'd find a better default search page.  I searched Google for "pizza" and the first 10 resutts were links to local pizza places.

"Pizza" is an incredibly broad and vague search term. I would expect the results to be local like that, actually. If I search for "washing machine", I get a bunch of results to repair/replace a washing machine. Searching for "how do I make a pizza" gives you no local results. Neither does "history of pizza".

[Webb]

It didn't used to be that way.  The "local ads as results" have just begun appearing in the last 6 months.

[crp]

the Quote button not working for me either

<pretend you see the first 2 posts here>

in that case , how about http://www.symbaloo.com/ ? as an added bonus, it well help you to get more familiar with the Metro UI  

[securitybreach]

crp, on 04 July 2012 - 02:18 AM, said:

In that case , how about http://www.symbaloo.com/ ? as an added bonus, it well help you to get more familiar with the Metro UI  

Well I personally like getting useful information like rss feeds and such on my homepage versus just some buttons that link to websites. That and I will never user Metro.

[crp]

Webb, on 04 July 2012 - 01:13 AM, said:

It didn't used to be that way.  The "local ads as results" have just begun appearing in the last 6 months.

   it depends on what the search term is. and sometimes the 'local ads' appear in the 5th position instead of the top.

[LilBambi]

I use Aggregator in Linux and Vienna on the Mac, and the now free FeedDemon on WIndows for RSS.

I use DuckDuckGo.com in SSL customized for many searches, although I have also just as many times searched from the addressbar in Google or right clicked on highlighted text and choose to search the words on Google.

[securitybreach]

LilBambi, on 04 July 2012 - 01:26 PM, said:

I use Aggregator in Linux and Vienna on the Mac, and the now free FeedDemon on WIndows for RSS.

I use DuckDuckGo.com in SSL customized for many searches, although I have also just as many times searched from the addressbar in Google or right clicked on highlighted text and choose to search the words on Google.

Sweet, I forgot about Aggregator. Now I just need to find a lightweight alternative.

[LilBambi]

I used to use Sage for RSS across the boards.

Have you looked at RSSOwl? (note: it's java based)?

I didn't realize there were so many different reader software for RSS in Linux.

That bottomfeeder might be a great crossplatform choice.

Few more and some the same here and here.

[Temmu]

i use igoogle as my news aggregator, but with all the links several of you posted, i will be busy finding its replacement.

booo google.

[Webb]

Two Excellent, Customizable Start Pages Worth Trying (Now that iGoogle’s Going Away)

I really like Netvibe's look.

I tried to register but just got a message telling me that there was an error but no explanation of what the error was.

I was probably using an existing username (James) but it could have at least told me that.

[securitybreach]

Webb, on 05 July 2012 - 11:53 PM, said:

Two Excellent, Customizable Start Pages Worth Trying (Now that iGoogle’s Going Away)

I really like Netvibe's look.

I tried to register but just got a message telling me that there was an error but no explanation of what the error was.

I was probably using an existing username (James) but it could have at least told me that.

I am going to play around with both of them later tonight. I do not need widgets so Protopage may be a better alternative for me.

Thanks

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Yes, I bookmarked Protopage. It looks neat and simple. I like that.

[zlim]

I currently use MyWay but I'm playing around with Protopage because you never know when things become "new and improved".  Protopage looks like a keeper for the headlines I like to view.

[sunrat]

V.T. Eric Layton, on 03 July 2012 - 09:28 PM, said:

Hey Webb... as some here know, I cut the cord to Google a few months back. I avoid all things Google these days. For search, I used Duck Duck Go. It's not bad at all. Give it a shot...
https://duckduckgo.com/

Duck Duck Go is ok and I use it sometimes, but they get results from Bing. Cute logo.
Mostly now I use Ixquick HTTPS, "the world's most private search engine".

[zlim]

I use https://startpage.com/eng/? which is a cousin to lxquick.

[V.T. Eric Layton]

sunrat, on 08 July 2012 - 09:17 AM, said:

Mostly now I use Ixquick HTTPS, "the world's most private search engine".

Very COOL, Roger! I just set my Firefox, Seamonkey, Midori, and Opera browsers to use it as a default for a while. Testing... Testing... 1,2,3...

BUT WAIT! ixquick uses google results? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH! I'm infected again.