The future? Integrate iGoogle, Calendar, Docs, Sites, and Talk/Chat - all in 1 - via Google Groups - so that groups of interested individuals can fully collaborate across the entire spectrum of Googles Suite of apps: building a collective portal of interesting feeds and information (iGoogle), sharing documents (docs), calendaring for events (calendar), building wiki pages and collaborative documentation and projects (sites), chatting all the while when people are online (talk).
With the current state of the Learning Management System world, (Blackboard behemoth suing other companies, very expensive LMS hosting, more and more schools using LMS's, more and more online programs and universities) - it seems like Google should be working on its own LMS - perhaps even somehow working with Moodle (open source LMS @ moodle.org) to create a truly incredible and inexpensive LMS that could revolutionize the world of online education worldwide.
Is it just me, but I really *hate* the new iGoogle layout. The left-hand tabs are really intrusive and don't work well... especially as I have a small tablet PC and they take up valuable screen-space.
I wouldn't mind if it was an option or customisable, but I hate having this new design forced on me!
iGoogle is taking between 30 to 45 seconds to load with Firefox 3.0.1. The Gmail gadget seems to be particularly slow. I am using XP with a 3GHz processor and 2 GB of memory. I see no problems loading other sites. Any ideas? Thanks.