It's is the 4th of July, a day when America is distracted with parties. A perfect day for Google to announce a change that they expected to draw ire. Yes, Google announced that iGoogle is one of the products that is joining the list of discontinued products.
It seems ironic that a company that has a stated mission of "Organizing the world's information" would kill a product that helps people organize their view of the world's information.
See Google's information about this decision here: http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2664197
TechCrunch announced the news here: Google Shutdowns Continue: iGoogle, Google Video, Google Mini & Others Are Killed
It is worth reading the comments and if you are an iGoogle user signing the petition started by Scott Barbour: http://www.change.org/petitions/google-don-t-kill-igoogle
TechCrunch also provided a list of the Google products that have been killed so far:
Google Bookmarks Lists, Google Friend Connect, Google Gears, Google Search Timeline, Google Wave, Knol, Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C), Aardvark, Desktop, Fast Flip, Google Maps API for Flash, Google Pack, Google Web Security, Image Labeler, Notebook, Sidewiki, Subscribed Links,Google Flu Vaccine Finder, Google Related, Google Sync for BlackBerry, mobile web app for Google Talk, One Pass, Patent Search, Picasa for Linux, Picasa Web Albums Uploader for Mac and Picasa Web Albums Plugin for iPhoto, and all Slide products.
I have used iGoogle as my start page since it launched in 2005. I have a set of frequently used bookmarks, tech news, techmeme and other popular news feeds (including the HealthCare Blog), I also have the weather, movie times and stock price widgets. It provides everything I need as a starting point on the web. I load the page hundreds of times a day, every time I launch a new browser window, so I get a quick update on news.
I could potentially move over to NetVibes as an alternative start page. If that doesn't work I may just setup a wordpress site with a minimal theme and use a few widgets to pull together rss feeds and other tools on to a single page.
Are you an iGoogle user?
You have 16 months to plan ahead but what are you going to do?
