iGoogle goes social

Stephen Withers
Friday, 07 August 2009 11:03

Business IT - Technology

Australian iGoogle users can now add social gadgets to their pages.

The latest addition to iGoogle is social gadgets - gadgets that allow users to interact with their peers. This feature will start appearing for Australian users this week.

The first dozen social gadgets cover status updates, games (including chess and trivia) and collaboration (shared to-do list).

Social gadget information is shared with the members of the Friends group in the user's Google Contacts. It will appear in either the corresponding gadget on the friends' iGoogle pages, or in the Updates feed.

The initial list of gadgets comprises a news feed from news.com.au; cartoons from GoComics; sharing photos, YouTube videos, status and to-dos; and the Biggest Brain, Chess, Flood-It!, New York Times Crossword, Trivia and Tile games.

iGoogle gadget developers are free to incorporate social features in their products.