Google launched a new feature on your personalized Google homepage this week; it is without a doubt one of the neatest features Google has given us to date, and It’s strictly a visual enhancement that offers no added functions other than just being plain cool. Users can now select a theme for their personalized Google homepage, and best of all, it’s dynamic!

The current themes that can be chosen include: Classic (boring), beach, bus stop, cityscape, sweet dreams, tea house, and seasonal scape.

Google noted that they will likely be adding more themes in due time, and consider offering a skinning API in the future to allow developers to create their own themes.

As if a theme on your personalized homepage wasn’t good enough, each theme changes dynamically. After selecting a theme for your homepage, you are asked to enter your zipcode. Google uses this information to change your theme based on time of day, weather, and location.

Google developed this feature to enhance users’ online experience. Themes change the background, text colors, icons, Google’s logo, button sizes, and possibly more, as Google hinted that there are hidden “easter eggs” within each theme.

“We’ve worked hard to ensure the design and technology underpinning these new themes continues to offer the best possible user experience. We set out to create themes that were both graphically-rich and dynamic, but still meet Google’s speed and scalability requirements,” said Google in a press release.

To select a theme for your personalized homepage, go to www.google.com/ig and click the “Select theme” link located in the upper right hand side of your page.

For a demonstration on just how dynamic these themes are, we’ve included some screen shots of various places around the U.S. using the ‘bus stop’ theme.

 
Sunny

Light clouds

 
Heavy clouds

 
Rainy

Thunderstorms

Windy

Foggy

Related:

Entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 7:44 am under Google.

Read more entries by George Gardner.
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