The example of the coaster and the mug of tea

Day 9 - I just logged into my igoogle page, but I must confess that it's the first time I've been there since I set it up.  As a homepage it makes a lot of sense, but my homepage on my laptop is my yahoo mail homepage, and my homepage at work is the library catalogue.  igoogle is a great idea, but I don't think it works for me.

I'm not (yet) hooked into the google machine.  I suspect igoogle's intention is to encourage that to happen as it brings all of the company's services into one place e.g. googlemail, search, translate, blogs etc.  I certainly don't begrudge it - google is clearly a great, innovative company that has made the internet an easier place to navigate and it often feels like their competitors are constantly battling to catch up.  However I'm still quite a fragmented internet user.  For instance, I use yahoo mail and yahoo used to own delicious but when they sold it off and created diigo, I didn't move with yahoo I stuck with delicious.  However, I would never use yahoo search or bing I always google.  I tweet and use facebook but don't use selective tweet to update my facebook status.  Maybe I am not fully engaging yet with web 2.0 by using different providers and not syncing my internet applications.  igoogle is clearly a way to streamline your internet experience.

However, I like the way I use the internet.  I don't want to be drawn into one monopoly, I have been using the internet for at least 13 years and have developed habits and customs just as one would living in a particular city for that length of time.  Clearly the intention of igoogle is not to get all of your information from the little boxes with their tidbits, rather it is a personalised page of links to your favourite websites and products.

So, it's all about bookmarking.  I already do this much more effectively in my web browser.  My favourite sites constantly sit on my screen on my bookmark toolbar along with a link to the rest of my bookmarks in organised folders.  A google search box is sitting in the top right hand corner, and I can change it to a wikipedia or amazon search with just one click.  I have constant access to my mail account because it's my homepage.  You see, google, I don't need you because firefox does it all for me.  My browser acts as the required bridge between my service providers and offers me searchability of the wider internet to access further information.  It does igoogle's job already.

An analogy springs to mind:
Imagine you didn't know your times tables (some of us don't need to imagine this too hard...)  To help you out you have a coaster with the times tables on it.  For your last birthday your partner bought you a mug with the times tables printed on the bottom, so when you finish your tea you can swat up.  However, the problem is that you are an accountant and you constantly need your times tables.  With the mug you need to drink an entire mug of tea at a time to get the answer of your times table query.  However, the boring flat coaster gives you the answer straight away.  Rather than having igoogle as your homepage and clicking to return there to link to information, the browser links you to your information sources directly.  I'm not a google mug.