Quick Fun: DIY iGoogle Gadgets

Google recently changed the name of it's personalized homepage to iGoogle. I've written before about some of the fun things associated with the service, including the time and location sensitive themes and some of the neat gadgets which are available.

I was looking in on my homepage today and happened to notice a link at the bottom which pointed to a page where you could "Make your own gadget" with no programming required. As a programmer, I was immediately intrigued, of course, so I had to check it out.

The page presents you with 7 different types of gadget which you can create. Most are just fun stuff (the Google Gram, Countdown). Others provide windows into your life to share with those you know and love (Photo Album, Daily Me). In all cases, the idea is to share -- the penultimate step of the creation process is sending out invitations for others to include your new gadget in their iGoogle home page. Of course, your recipients can't actually view the gadget unless they, too, have an iGoogle home page.

Just to try it out, I created a quick list of the books on my "to read" list. Feel free to add it to your home page.

I don't know how useful or how much use these tools will see. They're pretty light-weight and there are a number of services out on the net which duplicate the general functionality if not the capability to be included in someone elses home page. Still, I'm always impressed by how Google keeps coming up with new cool things which keep us thinking about the possibilities.

So, would you use any of these do-it-yourself gadgets?