Google Dashboard - your new Internet home page

By David M Williams
Thursday, 05 November 2009 16:49

Home IT

How much do you depend on Google? What is stored in your Google account? Whether you use just one or many of Google, Gmail, Picasa, Google Earth, YouTube or the many other Google products and services you'll now find it in one single place.

Ordinarily the term 'dashboard' is associated with complex business intelligence packages. Such dashboards are intended to give key strategic information in one location.

While Google Dashboard isn't adorned with graphs and dials it does give ordinary folk a view of their entire Google account on one page. You may be surprised just how entrenched Google is in your online life.

The Dashboard lists a centralised snapshot of all your pertinent Google information, including Gmail messages, web search history, YouTube subscriptions, calendar entries and much, much more.

Information presented includes details about your sent and received e-mails, drafts and attachments, online chat messages, personalised web history, Picasa and Google Maps usage and many other individual items.

”We think of this as a great step towards giving you transparency and control over your data,” said Alan Noble, Head of Engineering for Google Australia and New Zealand.

The Dashboard is not just read only; you can also manage the data and change settings with ease. In this regard alone, the Dashboard makes a brilliant all-in-one Google control panel, so to speak.

Google explains the Dashboard was developed with the goal of being transparent to its users, as well as giving them control.

With this objective Google Dashboard follows on from other recent Google innovations like the Data Liberation Front (DLF) that makes it easier for people to bring their data in and out of Google’s product suites to and from competing products.

You can access Google Dashboard via the Settings page of your Google account or through google.com/dashboard.