וואָס האָבן מיר בין דאָינג? דעם, אַז און נאוועמבער סאַוועיגאָאָגלע טאָג

Over the past month, we haven't been hiding under a rock. There just hasn't been much to write. Sure, we could have announced updates to the אַלטערנאַטיוועס list or talked about when we made news. אָבער, we didn't see either as all that newsworthy. We could even be lamenting iGoogle's demise one year from today. אַנשטאָט, we'll continue to keep doing what we're doing, like getting ready to give away what may end up being rare collectible swag on the first Save iGoogle Day tomorrow!

Unfortunately, we have to limit swag distribution to US residents, but we urge everyone to take part in SaveiGoogle Days. The rules for a chance to win some swag during the November Save iGoogle Day are:

  1. Between 11am EDT and 11pm EDT on November 2, 2012, do the following:
    • Add a comment to the November Save iGoogle Day thread started by SaveiGoogle.org at the יגאָאָגלע פערזענלעכע האָמעפּאַגע forum for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Retweet the November Save iGoogle Day tweet sent at Twitter by @SaveiGoogle for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Repin the November SaveiGoogle Day pin sent at Pinterest by סאַוועיגאָאָגלע for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Share the November SaveiGoogle Day post sent at Google+ by SaveiGoogle.org for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
    • Share the November SaveiGoogle Day status update sent at Facebook by צי ניט טייטן יגאָאָגלע for a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org keychain flashlight.
  2. Everyone that completes one of the above will also receive a chance to win one SaveiGoogle.org embroidered hat. Do all five of the above and receive five chances to receive the hat.
  3. Random drawings for winners will be completed by Sunday, November 3, 2012 and winners will be contacted that day.
  4. Swag distribution is limited to one item per person per SaveiGoogle Day.
  5. We reserve the right to change the rules for swag distribution without notice, including increasing the amount of swag distributed per SaveiGoogle Day.
אַרייַנגעשיקט אין Announcement, יגאָאָגלע, היט יגאָאָגלע טעג, SaveiGoogle.org ויסשליסיק

היט יגאָאָגלע טעג נעמען נאוועמבער 2! גוגל בלאַקקאָוט טעג קאַנסעללעד!

Unlike Google, we take your input seriously! A Stop SOPA style monthly gadget blackout sounded like a good idea at the time, but will just add to user angst like that caused by Labpixies (a Google company) premature termination of its birthday gadget, Gadgeteer pulling the plug on all their gadgets און Google killing its weather API. The monthly Google Blackout Days planned to start on October 1, 2012 are cancelled!

אַנשטאָט, let's have some fun with Save iGoogle Days starting on November 2, 2012! מיר וועט האָבן מער פרטים באַלד, אָבער מיר קענען זאָגן איר אַלעמען אַז פּאַרטיסאַפּייץ בייַ די יגאָאָגלע פערזענלעכע האָמעפּאַגע פאָרום, פאַסעבאָאָק, Google , Pinterest and/or Twitter will get a chance to win some swag.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין Announcement, יגאָאָגלע, SaveiGoogle.org ויסשליסיק, Volunteer

בינג עס אויף, האָאָרייַ פֿאַר מאָזיללאַ & געעקדאַד ס חלום אַפּ

A little more catchy than "אין פאַל איר מיסט עס #5?" We hope so! Anyway...

בינג עס אויף

In case you need more motivation to check out alternatives to the "new" evil (Google) empire. The "old" evil (Microsoft) empire is giving everyone the opportunity to do a blind comparison of Google and Bing search results at בינג עס אויף. Unless you run into the Bing team on the street, you won't have to give them the shirt off your back if Bing does better than Google. און, if you care to tweet about Bing It On, Microsoft is offering a big box of "awesome" Microsoft swag at bingsweeps.com.

האָאָרייַ פֿאַר מאָזיללאַ

Kjetil Hartveit is absolutely right about Mozilla doing the right thing by making the source code for it's iOS Sync client available on GitHub. However unlikely, we can still hope for the same from Google on the iGoogle container, the Google Gadget Editor and the theme and gadget directories. פֿאַר וואָס עס ס ווערט, Google did step up and open source Google Wave, now Apache Wave.

GeekDad's Dream App

GeekDad's got a pretty good app idea over at Wired. Would someone get on it? In that story's comments, we mentioned קיטעדעסק as an option. We just got our beta invite and will be evaluating features for our אַלטערנאַטיוועס list soon.

Postscripts

Backstitch just launched a public beta today. Don't expect much yet. אָבער, it looks promising. Currently it's focused on integrating news, photos, social and shopping within gadgets (patterns) and a reader (threads). It does have an RSS Feed gadget. There is no mobile capability, email, calendar, OPML import, sharing or broad base of gadgets.

Good to see Google put its considerable resources into supporting all those users clamoring for the "Bacon Number" instead of iGoogle!

We've made a few more updates to our אַלטערנאַטיוועס list. This update focused on adding a few potential options, eliminating a few options and changes based on your suggestions.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין יגאָאָגלע, יגאָאָגלע אַלטערנאַטיוועס, נייַעס סטאָרי, אנדערע בלאָג

פּלאַן אַלטערנאַטיוועס רשימה

Without further delay, our אַלטערנאַטיוועס list is available. Please recognize this is a work in progress. We would like it to be complete too, but it takes time to identify alternatives, define a set of criteria for consistent evaluation and complete feature verification and testing across multiple browsers and operating systems.  Many volunteer hours are going into developing the comparative alternatives list. To date, we've:

  • identified or received suggestions for 80 potential iGoogle alternatives,
  • verified and tested features for 17 alternatives,
  • eliminated 15 alternatives from the list for a variety of reasons, און
  • are working on the 48 other alternatives.

As it's not final, you won't find the list on the SaveiGoogle.org sitemap or menu. קאָנטאַקט אונדז if you think there is an alternative we missed or feature we need to consider.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין Announcement, יגאָאָגלע אַלטערנאַטיוועס, SaveiGoogle.org ויסשליסיק

גוגל קרעאַטעס אן אנדער שטורעם דורך מאָרד וועטער אַפּי

פריער דעם וואָך, דער ווייַטער וועב געמאלדן גוגל שטיל געהרגעט עס ס 'וועטער אַפּי (די אַפּי איז וואָס מאכט גוגל 'ס יגאָאָגלע וועטער האַמצאָע אַרבעט). פֿאַר רובֿ יגאָאָגלע ניצערס, מאָרד די אַפּי איז געווען קיין גרויס האַנדלען. גוגל שטיל ריפּלייסט עס אין די יגאָאָגלע האַמצאָע מיט איינער פון וועטער ונטערערד. אזוי וואָס איז די גרויס האַנדלען?

אפילו כאָטש די אַפּי איז געווען "פּריוואַט" און גוגל איז געווען "ין עס ס רעכט" צו ציען עס אָן באַמערקן,עס ס אַ עפענען סוד פילע דעוועלאָפּערס נוצן עס אין אַפּפּס אַז ביסט ניט מער פאַנגקשאַנינג. די וועטער ווידגעט אין אָסאַם ניו טאַב Page, צווישן די קראָום אַפּפּס אַז גוגל איז קאַונטינג אויף צו פאַרבייַטן יגאָאָגלע, איז אַראָפּ. און, דאָרט ס שעפע פון ​​ומגליקלעך באַמערקונג וועגן אים אין דער טוויטטערווערסע.קאָנסידערינג "אַלץ מיר טאָן אין קשר מיט אונדזער אַרבעט אין גוגל וועט זייַן, און זאָל זייַן, געמאסטן קעגן דעם העכסטן מעגלעך סטאַנדאַרדס פון עטישע געשעפט אָנפירן", אַ ביסל באַמערקן וואָלט האָבן שוין די רעכט זאַך צו טאָן. דעוועלאָפּערס, איר זאלט ​​קענען צו געפינען אַ פּאַסיק פאַרבייַט אַפּי בייַ פּראָגראַממאַבלעוועב.

דאס איז אן אנדער קאַמף וואָס גיט קאָנסומערס, דעוועלאָפּערס און פאַרנעמונג ניצערס איינער מער סיבה צו קשיא גוגל אָרנטלעכקייַט און פאָקוס. צו SaveiGoogle.org, מיר וויסן מאכן ווערט משפטים זענען יוזשאַוואַלי אַ ניט געווינען סיטואַציע. אָבער, טאַקע? בעכעסקעם דעם וועטער אַפּי און יגאָאָגלע, מיט ניצט ווי יענע אנגעוויזן אין די פּיקטשערד באַמערקונג פון יאַנרייַ בייַ "צי ניט נעמען מיין יגאָאָגלע אַוועק!", איז ווייניקער וויכטיק ווי דעוועלאָפּינג Google האַנגאָוץ יפעקס? עס קען זייַן קיוט און שפּאַס, אָבער ווי טוט אַ טשיף טעכנאָלאָגיע אָפיסער דערקלערן אַז "שטריך" ווען דיסקרייבינג געזעלשאַפֿט בענעפיץ פון Google האַנגאָוץ?

פּיז. מיר וויסן, מיר שולדיק איר אַ רשימה פון יגאָאָגלע אַלטערנאַטיוועס! די רשימה מיר ניטאָ יוואַליוייטינג האט דערוואַקסן צו איבער 75! אפילו אויב די שטריך רשימה איז ניט גאַנץ, מיר וועט אַרויסגעבן אַ פּלאַן דורך דינסטיק.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין נייַעס סטאָרי, אָבסערוואַציע, גוואַלדעווען

אין פאַל איר מיסט עס - Top סטאָריעס #4

Those looking for an iGoogle replacement have a new developer to watch! Josh Jordan has declared in iGoogle Discontinued – I might recreate it!:

...I have started to turn the cogs on this project. I have some really interesting ideas that could enhance the iGoogle experience...

Carol went on a "techy toy/app mission" to replace some iGoogle functionality at Wonder if Toodledo Can Help Me Produce? and found:

Over all I feel I have been more productive.

For those interested in finding a new task manager, we also suggest reading Top 10 Apps: Web-based Task Managers.

In closing, we wonder whether iGoogle's retirement is common knowledge what with a July 3 announcement, summer holidays and what not. We continue to see a number of stories that show authors are unaware (and they are not content scrapers). Two examples from the last week:

If these reasonably tech savvy folks are not "in the know", maybe there are many, many others that need to be reached with the Save iGoogle message!?

פּיז. Kudos to Ellen for mentioning IFTTT...a cool tool...definitely something we'll try to use at SaveiGoogle.org to announce new content.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין יגאָאָגלע, נייַעס סטאָרי, אנדערע בלאָג

Necessity Is The Mother Of Creativity #1

As traditional news venues lose interest in iGoogle retirement and Google continues to maintain its passive aggressive stance, you may wonder how we're going to keep things fresh.

  • Keep you informed on היט יגאָאָגלע קאַמפּיין developments.
  • Release an extensive list of iGoogle alternatives by the end of August. The list will include a feature comparison and each alternative has to be multi-platform capable (i.e., multi-browser, multi-OS and multi-hardware).
  • Publish an in-depth review of one or two of those alternatives each week.
  • Continue to scour the Web for stories you may have missed.

There should be no shortage of blogosphere stories. There are plenty of savvy people who like to publish what they're doing. Many of the stories don't have the detail to be included in our "ווי צו" page and series, but we're finding plenty of creativity.  Without further ado, you may want to check out:

We recognize many users have no interest in spinning up a website whether it be self-hosted, Blogger, Google Sites or otherwise (but these are just ideas, you don't have to try them). און, if we were Patricia, we would have also talked about pinning browser tabs with Firefox or Chrome (Internet Explorer users can pin to the taskbar in Windows 7, but Safari users are out of luck). As for Flipboard, we enjoy using the "social magazine" app as a leisurely alternative to an RSS Reader, but think Feedly is as good and a better multi-platform alternative since it supports iOS, אַנדרויד, Chrome, Safari and Firefox (sorry Internet Explorer users).

As always, feel free to comment on this story or קאָנטאַקט אונדז if you have something to say.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין ווי צו הודעות, יגאָאָגלע אַלטערנאַטיוועס, נייַעס סטאָרי

The “היט יגאָאָגלע קאַמפּיין” Begins

SaveiGoogle.org was conceived at a gathering of friends on the night of the iGoogle retirement announcement and put into motion with a simple page of resources on the following day. We were founded as a community effort, attempting to bring iGoogle users and developers together to Save iGoogle. We provide original content and information from around the Web about iGoogle and personal dashboard alternatives.

Weeks in the making, we announce the launch of the היט יגאָאָגלע קאַמפּיין! We invite everyone to join us in efforts to Save iGoogle and thank you for your help! For iGoogle users, the campaign lists recommended actions and resources and explains monthly iGoogle Blackout Days which will begin on October 1, 2012. For iGoogle developers, several tools are provided at דעוועלאָפּער מכשירים, including code for the "היט יגאָאָגלע" ribbon, gadget MiniMessages and iGoogle Blackout Days.

For those who have created "היט יגאָאָגלע" resources that are not mentioned in the campaign, many thanks and please continue your efforts. They won't go unnoticed. As appropriate, we'll make note in our blog, resources page, how to page or other content.

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין Announcement, יגאָאָגלע, Volunteer

What’s A Mouse To Do?

When in a position of strength, feign weakness!
And bring a lot more mice!
Have a great weekend!
Stop by Monday morning to learn more
and help with an act of defiance!

Many thanks to Adrian Bruce for the free use!

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין יגאָאָגלע, Media, אנדערע בלאָג, גוואַלדעווען

פארוואס היט יגאָאָגלע? – Media Scout And Useful On More Platforms Than An Olympic Diver

While the uses for iGoogle may be limitless, here are a couple more published examples for how people use iGoogle:

You can find these reasons and others for saving iGoogle at our פארוואס היט יגאָאָגלע? page under רעסורסן on the menu bar. See something we need to add? Comment or קאָנטאַקט אונדז!

אַרייַנגעשיקט אין יגאָאָגלע
Save iGoogle