Week 1: Personalised Homepage

Thing 1 – iGoogle ID

iGoogle lets you create a webpage for yourself, so that wherever you’re working, on whatever computer, you’ll be able to login to your own space to get the links and tools you find useful.
Watch this movie to see how easy it is to customise it to contain the links, tools you want, and to look the way you prefer.



Task:

1. set up your Google ID at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount (or use your existing Google ID if you have one)
2. go to https://www.google.com/ig and log in with your Google ID
3. set up 2 named tabs (click on the arrow on the home tab, and select “add tab”, and name it)
4. personalise your pages by using the “change the theme” option to change the colour/style of the top section of the page.

Extra task (optional)

• investigate Netvibes (eg ScHARR or South Tees NHS Libraries) and Pageflakes (Phil Bradley or East Cheshire Health Libraries)
• consider the difference between iGoogle and these other tools

Thing 2 – gadgets/ widgets

Just having an iGoogle page isn’t enough, you’ve got to populate it with tools and toys.

Task:

1. add 5 widgets to your iGoogle page (you can add a pubmed search box, fun things like horoscopes or interesting quotes, or a fish bowl)
2. click on 'Add stuff' and browse by categories (on the left-hand side), see what's popular by clicking on 'Most users', what's new by clicking on 'Newest' or use the search box.

Extra task (optional)

• add the Newton widget

Well done! First 2 Things are complete!