Those of us who are immersed in the field of technology everyday are very aware of web 2.0 tools and use them daily. For those who are not in this type of environment the concept of Web 2.0 may still be fuzzy. The wonderful people at Infinite Thinking Machine have simplified the abstract web 2.0 concepts into language all internet users will understand. The Infinite Thinking Machine blog post by Tom March ” the i’s have it” describes iGoogle as the solution for organizing the masses of information the internet provides and bring YOU the information YOU want.
Since the launch of iGoogle last week the world is now more involved in the web 2.o revolution than ever before, and it’s really easy! As I continued to read this blog post I was intrigued and became motivated to challenge what this post was saying. I convinced myself to try yet another Google feature. I found myself opening yet another account for mail service and another home page! As I went through yet another registration and created another password page, I thought the goal of web 2.0 was to condense the amount of stuff you had to keep track of, not create more!”
I have always been a loyal Yahoo user so I was hesitant to create more homepages. Even though it was scary I found as I explored my new google account I was involving myself in the web 2.0 communities. The igoogle account is very similar to my Yahoo page, including my Hi Megan, weather, calendar, but it also has the latest YES Blog posts and other favorite widgets! I am able to access all the cool google web 2.0 tools like; google spread sheets (we are now using this at GenYES thanks to Sylvia), Google Earth and Maps, Google Photos, which has now expanded to the web tool Picasa Web Albums, and Google Calendaring System. The feature that really makes this web 2.0 is Google emails me when anything new or interesting changes on my home page! Yes, Google tells me! It’s like having my own personal assistant 
I have now made iGoogle my real homepage. It was somewhat difficult to let go of Yahoo but I can now say I am officially involved in the Web 2.0 Community thanks to the new iGoogle.
Nice evaluation of the new features. I too use iGoogle
Hi Megan,
I think your post really captures what’s great and scary about Web 2.0. Letting go of a familiar tool means that you have to risk trying something new, put a little effort into it, and really think about whether the change is worth it. Most of the time you can’t completely evaluate whether it’s going to be worth it, you just have to jump in and try it!