Selfsufficientish.com

Having encouraged my mother to sign up to a gmail account a few weeks back when she changes ISP, I also signed up as a spare email just incase I lose my aol one.

Yesterday I discovered igoogle. I have played about with some widgets and now have it set as my home page - a wee trial if you like.

However, with google maps, google mail, google this and that, will google become the Walmart/Monsanto/(add other mahoosive, world controlling conglomerations here) of the IT world?

Oh I do hope so. At least Google has a better attitude. Microsoft say "this is what we're giving you, like it or not". Google at least pretends to be more market-driven - "we've done the market research and this is what we think you might want".

So you end up with wonders such as Google Earth, fully accessible via Google Sketch-Up (a partnership I use a lot). Worth the money, if only to say yah-boo-sucks to Bill Gates.

Mike

I am very taken with iGoogle. So much so, that I am spending the evening moving all my blog/ebay/library/forae emails over to my googlemail.

I am certainly not a fan of Mr Gates and his products - I only use Outlook 'cos I have to through work. Having watched the google wave youtube video this afternoon, I think it wont be long until Outlook is history anyway!

Just as long as Google don't get us all hooked and then start demanding money...

I think Google is brilliant and Google Earth and Google Streetview are absolutely amazing and I spend hours lost on them! I wander around Australia and America whilst sitting here at my desk and it's fab!

Amused to read through this thread 4 years on. iGoogle has been killed, SketchUp was shut down, the streetview cars have been spying on people's wifi, and GMail has been letting the NSA read your love letters and job applications. Sigh. It all looked so bright and shiny, not so long ago.