iGoogle Goes Social

Google is slowly turning into a monster able to provide you all that you may need from the Internet. For now, everything seems fine, and there are no side effects. Although I am not using all Google's tools, I am extremely happy with Gmail and I think the search engine isn't that bad, either. In fact, it's the best thing you can get for now, in most cases. To me, iGoogle is a pretty new service, since today it was the first time I used it, to be honest. Now, let's see what's the link between iGoogle and social networking, shall we?

Before moving on, I have to excuse myself for being so ignorant - iGoogle has been around since May 2005, and got its current name and a whole plethora of features on the 30th of April, 2007. On the 18th of April, 2008, Google turned its iGoogle page into its general user start page. Now, iGoogle has reached a level allowing it to compete with sites like Netvibes, Pageflakes, or Windows Live Personalized Experience.

OK, so the story is short and simple - Google is working on a new version of iGoogle, and is currently testing social networking features for the personalized home page, including chat between those signed in Google Web mail, instant messaging, or iGoogle services, in the left side navigation bar, sharing of stories in Google Reader and images in Picasa, as you can read in the Google Operating System blog.

To be honest, I am not crazy about having that left side navigation bar inside iGoogle(I wouldn't stop using Netvibes too soon, either), but I am sure they'll add an option to remove it, or maybe even an auto-hide feature. I know there are plenty of good similar sites, but what about leaving another Internet task to Google? Well, it may be scary, but we may be closer to Google OS than most of us think!