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May 19, 2005

Google Takes on Personal Homepages

We all know Google's the Internet's most popular search engine. But did you also know it's only the fourth most popular web site?

Currently, Google gets about 78.6 million unique visitors a month, meaning it lags behind Yahoo (114.8 million visitors), MSN (97 million visitors), and AOL (86 million visitors).

What is it about those other sites that attract so many visitors? Yahoo, MSN, and AOL are all portals. This means they attempt to consolidate all the services any online denizen would need into one site. That means offering email, news, stocks, weather, blog feeds, tv and movie listings, and more.

Google, on the other hand, presents itself as a bare-bones, no-frills search engine.

This (and their generally superior search results) has allowed Google to take the lead in the search market, but has left them trailing their competition when it comes to overall traffic.

That may soon change.

Google Labs rolled out a 'personalize your Google homepage' feature today. It's Google's initial attempt to make their site a bit more portal-like, and although it still falls short of the features offered by Yahoo, MSN, and AOL, it's not a bad start.

You can now customize the Google homepage to include your GMail account (if you have one), stocks, weather, movie times, driving directions, quotes (and words) of the day, and RSS feeds from Google News, the New York Times, BBC News, Slashdot, and Wired News.

In the coming months, Google also promises to greatly expand the number of number of RSS feeds it supports.

And to avoid turning off those users who prefer Google's stripped-down interface, Google will still offer its classic look and feel to anyone who wants it. Just click the 'Classic Home' link in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Give it a whirl.

More from around the web: Battelle, AP Business, SearchDay

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