I’ve been an iGoogle user now for about six months. During that time, I’ve played around (a lot) and wasted (a lot of) time. Well, maybe the time wasn’t really wasted because now I can share what I’ve learned with you so you can get your page online and working the way you want in a lot less time. I’d like to share my top five tips for getting started with iGoogle!

Tip #1: Pick a good theme
If you’re like me, you work (or play) more effectively if your surroundings are in tune with your personal tastes. Don’t make me work in a room that’s painted pink! That’s why finding the theme that’s going to define the look of your page is important. “How,” you may ask, “do I find the theme that suits me best?” Is color important to you? Are graphics important? As my friend, Lorrie, would say, “Whatever trips your trigger!” Let’s take a look at finding the right theme:

When you first get started with your iGoogle page, your page will look like…well…Google! If that works for you, then you can skip to tip #2. If you’d like something a little bit more customized, take a look at the links underneath and to the right of the Google Search box.

iGoogle

Would you like to be reminded of your favorite cause? Choose Themes for causes to search for it. If you just want something different, then choose Change theme from Classic and start searching for that perfect theme!

Once you choose the link that fits what type of theme you’re looking for, you’ll find yourself on the Themes tab where you’ll see a list of themes created primarily by Google users. Each theme is complete with a thumbnail shot of the theme, the author, how many other iGooglers are using it and how some of them have rated it.

You can either search for a theme by going from page to page and looking at all of them (one of those time-wasters I was telling you about), or you can search for a specific theme by keyword. Take a look to the right of the theme listing and you’ll see a familiar search box.

Search for iGoogle Themes

Type in a key word, or words, just like you would if you were doing a Google search and find results that match those keywords! If color is your thing, then type in the color of the theme you’re looking for. You’ll get a list of all the themes that use that color as a keyword. Once you find the theme of your dreams, just click on Add it Now beneath the theme and viola (that’s as in vwah-la, not the fiddle), your iGoogle page will take on the look you want! To see your page with the new theme applied, just click on “Back to iGoogle home” at the top left of the page just underneath the Google links. NOTE: I’m including this because I wasted a lot of time looking for it when I first got started and don’t want you to have to do the same!

In my case, I picked the Bipolar Guitar theme (don’t ask…it’s a long story). When I returned to my iGoogle homepage, there was a confirmation underneath the Google Search box that my theme had been changed. If you like your new theme (and I did) just click on Close to remove the confirmation or Undo to revert back to the original theme and continue your search for the perfect theme.Now that you have your theme picked out, why not add e-mail to your page?

Tip #2: Get e-mail on your iGoogle page

If you regularly check your e-mail account on the web, then why not check it right from your iGoogle page? There’s no need to open your desktop e-mail client and download your e-mail to your computer to send or receive messages if you use one of the major webmail services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOLMail or Hotmail. Just add a gadget for the e-mail service you use to your iGoogle page!

When you click the Add stuff link, you’ll open the Gadgets tab. It looks just like the Theme tab except you’ll see a list of gadgets instead of a list of themes. In the Search for Gadgets box located to the right of the gadget list, type in the name of your webmail service to see a list of gadgets you can add to your page that you can use to check your e-mail

Remember the links you used to find your theme? To add an e-mail gadget, click on Add stuff.

You’ll find multiple gadgets for checking your e-mail on your iGoogle page. It’s a good idea to pay attention to how many people are using the gadget and what rating they’ve given it. You can also get more information about the gadget in the iGoogle gadget directory by clicking the name of the gadget. Here is where you can also read other user comments.

Once you’ve chosen the e-mail gadget you want to add to your iGoogle page, click on Add it now and return to your iGoogle homepage to login to your account and start sending/receiving your e-mail!

Here are few links to examples of the highest rated e-mail gadgets:

If you have several e-mail accounts, there’s even a gadget you can use to check ALL of them.
Tip #3: RSS Rocks!

Do you want to keep up with the latest news or updates on your favorite site? The best way to stay up-do-date is by subscribing to the site’s RSS feed. A RSS feed (or news feed) is a data format used to provide updated site content to users who subscribe to receive it.  It’s like having a magazine subscription, as opposed to having to go to the store and pick up the latest copy. You don’t have to keep checking the site to see what’s going on.

If you’re a Firefox user, you can subscribe to and add your favorite feed to your iGoogle page right from the address bar of the browser. Type in the URL of the site to which you want to subscribe. If the site has an RSS feed available, you’ll see the RSS icon to the right of the URL.

Clicking on the icon opens a page that gives you a choice of subscribing to the site feed on your Google homepage (iGoogle) or with Google Reader.


If you choose to add the feed to your iGoogle page, updates will appear on your page the next time you open it. I subscribe to feeds with Google Reader, so I use the Google Reader gadget.Anytime you see the RSS icon on a site, you can click it to subscribe to updated site content. Some sites even have links to various feedreaders. To add the site feed to your iGoogle page, look for the Google icon:

Tip #4: Use Tabs

Now that you’ve started adding gadgets to that beautiful new iGoogle page, you might find yourself entering what I like to call “Gadget Overload.” Been there, done that! You can organize your gadgets on separate pages, or tabs, to more easily access the one you need without having to scroll down your page until you find where you put it! You can group similar gadgets together on a page and label that page with a descriptive tab.

What sorts of tabs might you be interested in adding besides your Home tab? On my own personal iGoogle page, I have tabs for Productivity Tools, News, Music and Contacts.

I work from home and it’s a real challenge to manage my time productively, especially when my cats, Trillian and Puff,  are pretending to nap on my desk. I say pretending because they have no problem reaching out a paw now and then to remind me that they’re there.  Having my Gmail, Google Calendar and To Do List right in front of me helps me stay on track. To learn more about adding tabs, read my article “How to Create and Share Tabs on iGoogle”.


Tip #5: Keep your page fresh!

You probably won’t keep all the gadgets you initially put on your iGoogle page. You’ll use some a lot, some a little and maybe you won’t use a few of them at all. There’s no point in keeping the gadgets you don’t use. Heck, all they do is get in the way of the ones you do use! For tips on the best gadgets (and the ones to avoid), visit the Unofficial iGoogle Gadget Blog where Brandon Garlock keeps you up-to-date with his Gadget of the Day blog posts. Find out what’s new, what’s hot and what’s not! Let Brandon help you keep your iGoogle page current, useful, and above all, FUN!