Few days ago, Google announced that it plans to close iGoogle. The five-year-old personalizable home page discontinuation elicited many complaints from iGoogle users.
However, the company will not reconsider its decision to discontinue iGoogle, according to a spokeswoman, who on Friday cited the official statements. Initially the news was published on Google’s official blog.
“On November 1, 2013, iGoogle will be retired. We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today’s web and mobile apps would put personalized, real-time information at your fingertips. With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for iGoogle has eroded over time, so we’ll be winding it down. Users will have 16 months to adjust or export their data.”
The most obvious reason for Google to stop the iGoogle service is that advertising doesn’t work on personalized pages. Personalized Web pages and advertising just don’t mix very well. Therefore, for a company that makes its revenues from selling ads, it is not feasible to maintain services that doesn’t produce revenues.
Users of the iGoogle see their pages as personal spaces, individually designed windows onto the web. Ads can’t blend with such private environment. On the other hand, for Google the iGoogle service is just business.
Sign the petition to save iGoogle! http://www.change.org/petitions/google-don-t-kill-igoogle
“Personalized pages and ads just don’t mix well”
Are you insane? Google’s entire ad revenue model is personalized ads. Google invented the genre. Every Google Ad you see has been analysed to best fit YOU. Gmail even scan the contents of your email to provide ads. There is no reason at all that google couldn’t put ads on igoogle.
I’d pay $5 a month for igoogle — that’s more then they would make off the ads on my page if it had them.
Good point! Maybe $5 a year would be more reasonable. I am paying that much for my email account with Google.
Anyway, it is always good to consider different points f view.