Far East Cynic

Acceptable Substitutes

I am a big fan of IGoogle. Its a great way to put the content of your favorite news sites and blogs all together in one place-and then make it your default home page when you fire up the browser. It makes a great aggregator and allows me quickly browse for headlines-then click on links to read in greater detail.

Which is what a real news hound should do. Its a better alternative than using Drudge, which has mostly made up headlines anyway. (Friends don't let friends use Drudge!).

So of course, Google being Google, is getting rid of IGoogle on the first of November this year. Just like Google Reader and many other useful apps-they are getting rid of. Google's explanation? Not a good one.

We originally launched iGoogle in 2005 before anyone could fully imagine the ways that today's web and mobile apps would put personalized, real-time information at your fingertips. With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for something like iGoogle has eroded over time, so we’ll be winding down iGoogle on November 1, 2013, giving you a full 16 months from the announcement to adjust or easily export your iGoogle data.

That's fine I guess, if you live and breathe with an I-Pad or your smart phone, but some of us still have use for a desktop or a laptop. The recommend solution by Google, customizing Chrome, doesn't really work very well. I've been casting around for a new aggregator that has the look and feel of IGoogle.

And I finally think I found it.

It's called Ig Home (www.ighome.com). It looks remarkably like I-Google, you can customize it and it has tabs you add-so you can have one tab for news, another for blogs, another for sports etc. I have been using it more and more-both at work and at home. ( The IT Nazis at work won't let me set my own home page-so I have to go to Ig Home as soon as I log in).

It takes a little time to set up-but now after 2 weeks, I have it just about the way I want it.

So if you are an IGoogle fan like I am-this a very acceptable alternative.

  1. I, sadly,am a news junkie as well as a history nut job. and i promise myself i will take a "news break" for a few days but never can. Its a sickness.

    anyway, I would be curious to know what news source you trust the most?

    http://www.realclearworld.com

    http://www.realclearpoltics.com are in theirpown way a news aggregator and have the added benefit of having very diverse viewpoints. Whats the sense in reading "stuff" from folks you already agree with.

    Speaking of which, you never hesitate a nano second to critize FOX news but OMG….MSNBC in thier coverage of Zimmerman et al has not had ONE dissenting voice from the obligatory black pundits and uber liberals…its fascinating to watch them march in unison. At least HLN and CNN have some varied viewpoints and hats off to Anderson Cooper.

    and MSNBC by the way, their viewership has really tanked. 

  2. I don't like either of them truth be told-and one of them is a blocked IP where I work. My lineup is pretty straightforward: South China Morning Post, Straits Times, Haaretz (this is a work requirement), The Economist, NYT, Channel News Asia, MLB scores ( gotta follow my Pirates!), BBC, Lifehacker, CNN, Navy Times and of course, Dilbert.

  3. I was searching around the DLA website and I found a link to the "Early Bird."  I had forgotten about that one.  It was a decent place to get stories from time to time.

  4. Blocked websites

    why do they do that? I can see porn etc but NEWS or opinion sites why?

    my first encounter with censorship was when I was in South Korea and park Chung hee was in power, I used to buy the asia edition of time or newsweek and once in awhile they would literally cut out any article n South Korea, favorable or not.

     

     

  5. Skippy,

    On the Early Bird link, you need to be on a .miol domain.  If not you have to register your SSAN.