Java4Diva's dashboard

Hate the new iGoogle? Sign the petition!

http://www.petitiononline.com/igoogle/

I am a widget/gadget developer, website designer, business executive,
consumer, and "early adopter" — by no means a “Joe the Plumber” (see
this smarmy article favouring the new iGoogle -- "Early Adopters vs.
Joe the Plumber" http://mashable.com/2008/10/20/new-ig...), and I
count myself among the ranks of the well-practised, savvy computer
users and utilitarian user-folk at “The Official new iGoogle
Constructive Criticism Thread” (and the other near-800 discussion
threads at Google who hate the new iGoogle): I don’t like the new
iGoogle, its clumsy functionality, its cluttered and off-balance look,
or its usurpment of MY page.

For all the much-vaunted canvas view and alleged Gmail improvements
(which were actually an UN-improvement and cheapo knock-off of gadget
developer Will McSweeney's iGoogle mini-app which worked flawlessly
and had full, smooth functionality), Google and the G-men had numerous
alternatives they might have followed to improve their monetisation
and payload WITHOUT disrupting Jane and Joe’s — and my — carefully
constructed and, let’s face it, very personal iGoogle home pages.

Yes, they are definitely using the SY algorithm, plus a few pages from
Howard Schulz’s textbook, How to Unravel Your Customers’ Loyalty in 1
Fell Swoop.

At a time in the market when more and more computer users, both new
and existing, rush to buy laptops and smaller computing devices,
expect maximum personalisation, and ergo, rightly consider the laptop
screen as their real estate and the look and GUI of sites they
populate and visit as their neighbourhoods, Google and its ilk can
expect strong resistance, sharp criticism, and outright abandonment
when they fail to acknowledge their debt to the Janes and Joes.

In a down market, consumers/users call the shots and it behooves
Google to double-check their math, their values, and their attitude.