iGoogle Showcase for Lawyers

If you've found your way to this blog, either through Twitter, RSS feed or by navigating, there's a good chance you are already using a web-based tool that I really like: the custom start page.

In my onoging and so far fruitless attempt to wrangle some kind of royalty out of the "don't be evil (except in China)" folks at Google by relentlessly shilling for their products, I use iGoogle as my start page of choice, but NetVibes and Pageflakes have a lot to recommend them, too.

(Sorry for lashing out, Google, please don't turn the internets off.)

If you haven't had a chance to evaluate and choose a custom start page yet, CNET Australia ran a good article called Start-page Smackdown. It's written in Australian though, so you may need the Google Translate tool to understand it.

As I said, I use iGoogle as my browser homepage mostly because I am already using most of Google's other tools as well and they all play very nicely together. If you're interested in learning a little more about iGoogle, read this article by Jim Calloway and Catherine Sanders Reach and if you'd like the survey course of other Google tools lawyers might like read this article by Jared Correia.

Yesterday evening as I was logging on to my homepage I noticed a little note that said, "New: Introducing the iGoogle Showcase" which, it turns out, showcases the iGoogle preferences of a whole bunch of interesting, smart people. And Ashton Kutcher. Ok, that may be unfair. It's really only a few interesting, smart people.

It's pretty interesting to see the widgets that, say, Donald Trump uses. Never pictured the Donald for a funny cat photo guy... You can page through the widgets that these assorted famous people use and snag a few new ones for yourself. If you simply must have every single widget that Keith Urban uses, you can also add the iGoogle pages wholesale as a tab on your own iGoogle.

Here are some of the interesting things I discovered:

• Al Gore has a widget featuring Jon Stewart quotes, which I guess is a little Chicken Soup for the Snark Lover's Soul.
• Deepak Chopra's top widget is.... [drumroll] the Deepak Chopra Blog! Top post at the Chopra Blog: how to cultivate humility in 3 easy steps.
• Ryan Seacrest's page has nothing on it but a sign that says "You Must Be At Least This Tall To Have an iGoogle Showcase."

Okay, so a lot of the showcased sites are self-congratulatory and inane. But the idea of sharing and showcasing the iGoogle widgets we all love is a good one.

Here is a screen cap of my iGoogle start page:

As you can see, on my Home tab I use:

• Gmail
• Google Reader
• Google Docs
• Google Voice
• Google Latitude
• Date & Time
• Weather

On my News tab I have:

• Google News
• Google Finance Portfolios
• E.J Dionne's column (RSS feed, not a widget)
• David Broder's column (RSS feed, not a widget)
• Maureen Dowd's column (RSS feed, not a widget)
• David Brooks' column (RSS feed, not a widget)
• Roger Ebert's movie reviews (RSS feed, not a widget)

The somewhat embarrassing revelation that I lump Roger Ebert's movie reviews in with my "News" tab and prefer the "Misted Forest" theme probably reveals more about me than I might like.

But enough about me, what I would love to know is what widgets do you use and really like? If you have something interesting to share, please leave it in the comments section below. See if we can go all hive mind on this and drum up a good list of iGoogle widgets for lawyers.

Or if that's too much work, we can all just go see what widgets Rachael Ray likes.

Comments

[Sheryl Sisk Schelin]

I particularly enjoy the "Jack Bauer" widget called "Interrogator". Today's entry:

Mission Impossible is just another way of saying "Mission Without Jack Bauer."

My favorite entry of all time, though had to be this one:

Jack Bauer once lost his keys. He tortured himself for thirty minutes until he remembered where he'd left them.

And my theme is "From Paris" - 'cause {whimper} I really, really, really wanna go...