GOOGLE! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!

OK, somehow this one managed to escape my radar. As of November 2013, Google is dropping iGoogle.  If you haven't used it, iGoogle is the personalized homepage that comes with every Google account.  Here's a screenshot of mine.   It's set as my browser landing page, so the first thing I see when I log on each morning is my calendar, email, and the  blog postings/RSS feeds I really want to keep up on.

Very cool, keeps me organized, and I like changing the look with the seasons. It's also a great workshop with teachers, showing them how to use it to create their own organizers and PLN's.  They always love playing with it.

More importantly, it is my go-to tool for students to create information dashboards as a way to organize themselves and their research.  Students and I both prefer iGoogle (over NetVibes or Symbaloo) because not only does it play well with the other Google Apps, it also played (reasonably) well with our database feeds.

Despite repeated trying, I have never been able to get Netvibes to work with our Gale feeds.  And I just don't like the look of Symbaloo.  Kids are very visual; looking at a bunch of similar tiles isn't all that informative for them as to content.  Netvibes and iGoogle both show the content in the widgets.

Here's a screenshot of the sample Netvibes  ID I use with students.

And Google's taking it away.

They say because mobile apps make it all redundant.  I beg to differ.  The great thing about iGoogle is both it's personalized nature AND the fact that IT'S ALL IN ONE PLACE.  I'm sure I could use several different apps to do everything iGoogle does, but why should I?  And why should students?

So come on, Google.  It's not that I'm a Luddite resisting change. This is something that is still really, really useful. 

As always, there's a petition.  You can sign it here.