New Australian gadgets, updated iGoogle

iGoogle, Google's personalised homepage, lets you create customised pages with snippets of information including games, news, and video (these snippets are known as “gadgets”) from across the web, without having to bring up each site individually. It brings you immediate, at-a-glance access to the information you search for regularly across the web, on a single page.

From today, we're making it even easy to find a child care provider, check petrol prices, and get the latest Australian news, business headlines, league and aussie rules results, with the latest version of iGoogle. We've worked with News Digital Media to create four new gadgets for Australian iGoogle users:

• news.com.au gadget collates news headlines from news.com.au, including breaking news, blogs and video content 
  
• The Australian Business gadget keeps Australians up to date with the latest business news and market information
  
• LeagueCentral gadget offers the latest league news, analysis and results from The Daily Telegraph’s team of rugby league experts
  
• SuperFooty gadget will offer the latest footy and SuperCoach news as it happens (coming soon)
  

Australian child care search engine CareforKids.com.au has also created a gadget that makes it easy to search for child care vacancies and find information on child care providers near you, including fees, testimonials and maps. According to a recent survey conducted by CareforKids.com.au, nearly one in five parents take more than a year to find appropriate child care, so this gadget should help make the search a lot easier and provide vital additional information to parents all over Australia.


The new gadgets coincide with the rollout of an updated version of iGoogle for Australia. The main feature of the updated version is canvas view gadgets, letting you expand a gadget to access more content so you can read news, play games and watch videos in full screen, all on your personalised iGoogle page. For example:

• News - the new news.com.au gadget expands into canvas view, showing you additional news headlines, the latest video news, and most popular stories
  
• Sport – the SuperFooty and LeagueCentral gadgets will expand into canvas view, giving you more information on your favourite teams as well as expert opinion and video
  
• Games and fun - the Sudoku gadget lets users play full-page sudoku puzzles -- there are thousands of puzzles to choose from -- without squinting at 6 point font
  
• Communication/tools - with the Gmail gadget, you can now perform simple actions on Gmail without leaving your iGoogle page, like sending or replying to emails 
  
• Petrol price tracker - this popular gadget expands into canvas view, making it easier than ever to check out the locations of the most price-friendly pump near you
  

We've also made some other changes to the iGoogle interface, like replacing the tabs with left-side navigation, so you can jump from one canvas view to another with just one click.

There are around 60,000 gadgets and 200,000 feeds available in our public directory for people to add to their iGoogle page, and more than 2,000 iGoogle themes currently available, including themes designed by Australian artists. So what are you waiting for? Get started with iGoogle and set up your own personalised homepage today.

Posted by Katharina Friedrich, Product Marketing Manager