In Case You Missed It – Top Stories #3

Posted on August 3, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

One month in and we're still seeing new third-party stories about iGoogle's retirement..two good ones last week...

This week's gold goes to iGoogle Retiring by Alderin. Anyone want to encourage Alderin to cobble together 1,000 lines of code?

Makes me wonder if my half-work-half-personal anti-sharepoint web-based “cloud” desktop collaboration project is getting a shove forward from the universe...or did Google come up with the same idea and it’ll be out before I could find the time to cobble together a thousand lines of code?

And the silver goes to this damning, but slightly off-topic coverage on Google Gives Talk Users Something to Squawk About by Richard Adhikari. Among the critical gems:

Google "isn't communicating well at all," Enderle pointed out. Its response to the outage "continues to reflect a behavior that is anti-customer and serves as a major red flag for anyone thinking of using a Google product for anything."

What do you think? Did we get it right? Is there a story we missed?

 

Posted in iGoogle, News Story

iGoogle Mobile Is Dead! Developer Signals Google To Foff!

Posted on August 1, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

In case anyone is still hoping it's a bad joke, What's happening to iGoogle? is being delivered. "Phase one" of iGoogle's retirement is moving forward, albeit slowly.  At 9:16pm MDT last night we took the screenshot to the left. iGoogle mobile was still working. We checked again at 11:05pm MDT last night and several times this morning on iPhones and Android phones. The iGoogle icon is still there, but it unceremoniously takes us to the Google mobile search (Web) page instead of iGoogle. At least one user "didn't get the memo".

We also submitted a test gadget to the gadget directory this morning expecting it to be rejected, as reported at our exclusive on Spring Cleaning Does Include Google Gadgets! But, the gadget directory appears to continue to accept new gadgets. We'll continue to watch this and report when the situation changes.

In other news, there's already been one defection of note from the gadget developer ranks. The developer known as Gadgeteer has apparently eliminated support of all things Google (well, at least Blogger and Gadgets) and has left some unhappy users in his wake.

This development does present the opportunity for a couple of questions. How would you react if gadget developers flee for the exits and abandon iGoogle overnight? Instead, what if developers organize monthly temporary blackout campaigns? Without getting into technical details, please be aware each campaign would need to last for three to four days for full effect because Google caches (stores) developer code for about 24 hours. Is it something iGoogle users will understand and support?  Will you be willing to flood the iGoogle Personal Homepage forum and Google phone lines on those days with complaints?

 

Posted in Google Gadgets, iGoogle, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

How To #3 – Take the Hamster (and more!) to Netvibes and Protopage

Posted on July 31, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

Adam Bowman's infamous hamster gadget is already available on Netvibes, but what about other iGoogle gadgets. Is there a way to take them to Netvibes or Protopage?

Indeed, there is a way! However, a couple of warnings:

  • The following instructions do not work for some gadgets! Step 5 of the "Find And Copy The Google Gadget Source Code" section will give a good sign if an iGoogle gadget will work in Netvibes or Protopage.
  • Our exclusive on Spring Cleaning Does Include Google Gadgets! indicates the gadget directory will not be updated for new gadgets after today. However, gadgets should continue to be available as long as a gadget writer continues to make gadget files available for use.

Find And Copy The Google Gadget Source Code

  1. Select/click on the gadget you want to copy at iGoogle.
  2. Select/click on the settings icon for the gadget as pictured to the right. The settings icon is found at the top right corner of each gadget.
  3. Select/click on "About this gadget" and you will be taken to an informational page for the gadget.
  4. Select/click on the "Webmaster tools" dropdown at the top right corner of the informational page for the gadget.
  5. Select/click on "Embed this gadget" and you will be taken to an "Add this gadget to your webpage" page. If the gadget doesn't appear properly on this page, you likely will not be able to take the gadget to Netvibes or Protopage.
  6. At this point, you'll be given the opportunity to change gadget settings, but with most gadgets all that needs to be done is copy the code.
  7. Scroll down the page and select the "Get the code" button and copy the code that appears under "Copy and paste the HTML below to include this gadget on your webpage."

 Netvibes

  1. Go to the tab where you want to insert the gadget code.
  2. Select/click on "Add content" at the top left corner of the screen.
  3. Select/click on "Essential widgets".
  4. Select/click on "HTML" widget and select/click on "Add to my page".  The widget will be added to the top of the tab you selected and will be named "UWA Module".
  5. Select/click on the settings (edit) icon at the top right corner of the widget.
  6. At "Title", enter the name you want for the widget. At "Source", paste the code copied at step 7 of "Find And Copy The Google Gadget Source Code". Select/click on the "OK" button. An example of input using the Hamster gadget follows.

The finished widget should look like the image that follows.  In completing the widget, we removed "amp;title=__UP_hamsterName__&" from the code because we already added a title to the Netvibes widget.

 Protopage

  1. Go to the tab where you want to insert the gadget code.
  2. Select/click on "Add widgets" near the top right corner of the screen.
  3. Select/click on "Web widget code" then drag and drop the widget onto the tab you selected.
  4. Select/click on "edit" at the top right corner of the widget and a "Widget edit" dialog will appear.
  5. At "Widget title", enter the name you want for the widget. At "Paste your code here", paste the code copied at step 7 of "Find And Copy The Google Gadget Source Code". Select/click on "Save". You generally won't need to change the other widget settings (Never display scrollbars, vertical offset and horizontal offset). An example of input using the Hamster gadget follows.

The result at Protopage is similar to the one at Netvibes, so we didn't include a finished widget image. As we indicated above, results will vary based on the iGoogle gadgets you want to take to Netvibes or Protopage. Good luck!

Posted in Google Gadgets, How To Posts, iGoogle Alternatives, Netvibes, Protopage, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

Why Save iGoogle? – Genealogy, Flexibilty And Better Than An RSS Reader

Posted on July 26, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

Here are three more examples about how people use iGoogle and reasons for saving it:

You can find these reasons and others for saving iGoogle at our Why Save iGoogle? page under Resources on the menu bar. See something we need to add? Comment or Contact Us!

Posted in Why Save iGoogle?

In Case You Missed It – Top Stories #2

Posted on July 24, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

There were three more notable "Save iGoogle" stories last week. While none ranked with the wit of Alex Zaharov-Reutt on July 7, we think a gold should be awarded for one based on resolve, along with a silver and a bronze.

Gold: I am not mad at Google; I am frustrated with myself - Atanas (A.T.) Entchev was motivated by the iGoogle decision to move his blog off Google-owned Blogger to open-source self-hosted WordPress:

 I am not mad at Google. I don’t hate Google. I am simply resolving to rely less on their services. I suggest you do the same.

Silver: Google cancels iGoogle, insults users at same time - Jason Magder has plenty of emotion, but he finishes poorly with:

If you’re as upset about this as I, there is a petition to save the service. I didn’t sign up, because I don’t want to be seen as both old and cranky.

Jason, if you're truly upset, sign the petition and maybe do more! It makes us wonder how many other people have accepted Google marginalizing their use of iGoogle?

Bronze: Would iGoogle and Google Video Kick the Bucket? - Mark Dwayne nearly lost us on this story, appearing to trivialize iGoogle until he finishes with:

With so much competition in the social networking world, would iGoogle and Google video kick the bucket? My answer is a definite yes (hoping to be proved wrong)!

What do you think? Did we get it right? Is there a story we missed?

 

Posted in iGoogle

How To #2 – Secure Your Netvibe!

Posted on July 23, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

We wondered if the two oft-noted most iGoogle-like replacements have SSL (aka HTTPS) security. Or, if we will be forever resigned to wondering if the Mark Zuckerberg wannabee sipping a caramel macchiato in the corner at the local Starbucks is using FireSheep to sniff out personal information in an iGoogle replacement. Wonder no more.

Netvibes has SSL (but Protopage doesn't). It's as simple as going to "https://www.netvibes.com/signin". Just like iGoogle, some content is still insecure. And, in some browsers, you'll need to click-through the warning about insecure content to see all Netvibes content.

For what it's worth, using SSL is only part of the equation for web site security. We're hoping Netvibes, Protopage and other iGoogle replacements leave a reply/comment to tell everyone how they keep personal information secure when they see this post.

You can also find this at our How To page listed under Alternatives on the site menu.

 

Posted in How To Posts, iGoogle Alternatives, Netvibes, Protopage, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

What Happens When A Daring Librarian Meets Protopage?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

The Daring LibrarianGwyneth Anne Bronwynne Jones, The Daring Librarian got busy recently and made a public Protopage. Wow! Nice sweet snarky fresh personal branding! Thanks for sharing Gwyneth!

Posted in Other Blog, Protopage

Why Save iGoogle? – Gotye, Kimbra, Morning Press And The Universe

Posted on July 19, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

What do they have to do with iGoogle? Well, Google is still hearing many laments about iGoogle retirement at the iGoogle Personal Homepage Group:

Keep up the pressure!

Welcome Why Save iGoogle? #3 - #5 to the Why Save iGoogle? page! See something we need to add? Contact Us!

Posted in Why Save iGoogle?

How To #1 – Add iGoogle RSS Feeds to Netvibes and Protopage

Posted on July 17, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

This is the first of a series of ongoing "how to" posts produced here at SaveiGoogle.org. You can also find this at our How To page listed under Alternatives on the site menu.

In "From iGoogle to Netvibes in 3 Easy Steps", the Netvibes blog provides a good "How To" for importing iGoogle RSS feeds to Netvibes. The blog also includes a conversion tool needed for the import. Based on our testing, following are a few things to add to the Netvibes instructions, along with instructions for importing RSS feeds to Protopage and instructions for importing Google Reader RSS feeds to Netvibes and Protopage.

Netvibes

A couple of cautions about the Netvibes instructions:

  1. If you are signed into multiple user accounts at Google, the "Grab" step at Netvibes will produce an OPML download file for the Google account you've designated as the default.
  2. When using the Netvibes conversion tool, the “save as file” button for the OPML result doesn't appear in some browsers, but you can do the following to create the OPML file:
  • Copy the OPML result and paste into a text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextWrangler (Mac).
  • Save the file as igoogle.opml.
  • Go to the "Import" instruction at Netvibes

After import, Netvibes will create RSS feed widgets in tabs with the same tab name used at iGoogle.  If you don't like the resulting layout, you can rearrange the widgets by dragging and dropping them within a tab or onto a different tab.

One thing Netvibes does better than Protopage (and for that matter iGoogle) is its "reader" feature. Every RSS feed you have at Netvibes is a widget and is also integrated into the reader. At Netvibes, the switch to set widget or reader view (as pictured to the left) is near the top left corner of the screen.

Protopage

You can also use the Netvibes conversion tool for Protopage by replacing the Netvibes "Import" step with the following:

  1. Select the "Add Widgets" tab near the top right corner of the screen.
  2. Select "Import OPML" near the bottom left corner of the screen, then "Upload an OPML file".
  3. Input the OPML file you created at Netvibes and select "Go".

After import, Protopage requires you to do more work. Select each feed listed below "Upload an OPML file" (as pictured to the right) and drag the widget that appears to a tab. We found it easiest to create a new tab for this purpose, drag each widget to that tab and then rearrange the widgets by dragging and dropping them within a tab or onto a different tab. As the picture to the right shows, you will not be able to see the name of a feed/widget until you select it. After you drag and drop each widget, you need to go back to step 1 above to see the feeds/widgets below "Upload an OPML file" again. All your imported RSS feeds will continue to be available until you close your browser.

Google Reader

What Netvibes didn't tell you is you can also import your Google Reader RSS feeds!  To do that:

  1. Go to Google Reader (not the gadget in iGoogle).
  2. Select "Reader settings" under the "gear" image on the right side of the screen.
  3. Select the "Import/Export" tab.
  4. In the "Export Your Information" table, select the OPML download of your subscriptions, as pictured to the left.
  5. Save "google-reader-subscriptions.xml" when prompted. Even though this file has an xml" extension, it is an opml file.
  6. Follow the import instructions for Netvibes or Protopage, or both.

Did we miss anything? Does this help? Let us know here or at:

 

Posted in Google Gadgets, Google Reader, How To Posts, iGoogle Alternatives, Netvibes, Protopage, SaveiGoogle.org Exclusive

Give Penguin Pete A Little Love!

Posted on July 16, 2012 by SaveiGoogle.org Staff

This is sad! He's lonely at Google+ because it doesn't do iGoogle and no one visits...

Right now, it's basically me and Linus Torvalds and two crickets. Even the crickets have given up chirping.

Comment on his blog post, Six Things I Wish I Could Do With My Google+ Account and let him know you care! Do you want to really shock Pete Trbovich? Add him to a circle.

 

Posted in Other Blog
Save iGoogle