Probably not the way I would have laid it out, but then again Google is not really known for it’s brilliantly beautiful layouts. They are about simplicity, and that is what this is. Simple. For starters, there is no real need for the giant Google logo and search box taking up the whole top half of the page. The search, though the most widely used piece no doubt, could certainly occupy less space, making for a slicker layout.
It does incorporate some of their more commonly used tools, as I had hoped that it would, but it is missing the “I am definitely using this for my homepage” factor. Where is the ability to add Froogle, or Orkut, or Blogger, or the newly acquired Dodgeball? What about a place to add RSS feeds, something Yahoo does very very well with there “add to my yahoo” buttons that are everywhere on the web. Some better customization and more options would be cool, as well as a tighter design. Good start though.
New Thought…Expanding on the suggestion of adding an RSS feed reader into the layout, how about this? Google OWNS Blogger. Why not add an “add to my google” button to all Blogger hosted blogs network wide, and then incorporate the ability to syndicate selected Blogger content into your MyGoogle homepage? Google has a big jump over Yahoo here, in that they own the largest blog software suite in the land, and if done right, could also have the most used homepage in the land. Seems like a no-brainer integration. But then again, I would assume Google probably knows what they are doing…
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