By now I am sure you have noticed that your Google homepage has changed if you use iGoogle. All the tabs that used to be across the top are now collapsible and live on the left side of the page. Google announced this change early this morning and has already rolled it out to US users. Love it or hate it, it’s here and it is optimized for people who have wide screen monitors and it looks terrible squeezed together on a 4:3. As of yet I don’t know how to revert it back to the old style. I am sure we can hack it back using some greasemonkey scripts, but until then we are just going to have to deal. Have a look below.
*UPDATE*
It seems a lot of people are jumping ship from iGoogle to my.yahoo. Before you go to the hoo, check out netvibes.com. If you liked the old iGoogle, you should love netvibes.
7:16PM EST
Not sure how long it’s been like this, but it looks like they switched back to the new layout.
6:04PM EST
Looks like they reverted back to the original layout. I just went back to my homepage in an effort to try and make sense out of it and my tabs on top were back. Go figure.
Does there have to be so much white space at the top of the page? Waste of space……ugh.
Gross.
I am one of many who have seen it and dont want it. I have only a few tabs, and use igoogle mainly as my home page so i can see if i get any new messages and as a notepad (i have a few nots applications)
i dont need this, and it takes a lot of space on my page. Please add the option to remove/hide this “feature”
Please get rid of the “lefty sidebar” It is useless to me! Or if you don’t want to get rid of it, just give us a choice of putting that thing at the top. It is a waste of space to those of us who don’t have a widescreen monitor! I had my “home” page set up just fine and you’ve ruined it!
At this very moment people are flaming the hell out of Google for this. The best thing they could have done would have been to also roll out a button to switch to the old style tabs.
As I mentioned elsewhere, it seems like a weird psychological experiment, since it was so clearly a bad idea for most Google users. So the question becomes, how long before Google gives us the choice to opt out?!
Right now you can’t change it back. I wish they would have put up screen shots of how it will look old style and new, and then asked us if we preferred one or the other or if we wanted to have the option of changing it.
I was able to whack it once by revert back to a back up. That’s not working now.
I love when people help me by wrecking things I’ve personalized. Who can have thought a unilateral change would be widely accepted?
I want a bailout now.
I HATE sidebars. And this one is an ugly eyesore. I have already gone back to Yahoo as my homepage until Google gives us a choice of ugly sidebar or tabs.
I hate this lefty side-bar. I use Igoogle for everything but maybe I should try yahoo for content for a while… maybe I’ll like it… or maybe google will have the courtesy to give us the option to remove this useless sidebar.
I agree. I don’t mind if google comes out with a new format, but at least let us keep the old.
I guess google is now stealing not only the idea of “tabs” from facebook, but is also stealing facebook’s “you’ll upgrade to the new version AND YOU’LL LIKE IT!!!”
The biggest thing that pisses me off is the main thing I do from iGoogle is look at stock. Now I can’t see all the info about the stock from finance.google.com without multiple clicks – and having all my other igoogle content disappear when i click on something in iGoogle is equally annoying.
Whoever is in charge of this move by Google should get the sack!
I hate the new look wastes so much space. I have one tab and it takes a quarter of the page and squishes everything to one side. google change it back or the option to remove it.
The results ar ein. 99% of Google users hate it and they are lighting the torches and sharpening their pitchforks.
http://www.google.ie/ig?rls=ig&hl=en&source=iglk
I do not like the new layout. My home page used to be displayed without the need to scroll. Now that is required.
Please add an option to revert back to tabs across the top of the page.
I’m checking out Yahoo.
Why Google? Why why why? Change is not always good. You did this without notice, with no chance to choose or keep the old layout. This layout should be an option, not mandatory. You guys made your mark on me with your simple, clean search page. When you came out with iGoogle, I hesitated and moving away from my.yahoo.com because of all the effort I put in. But now I will be going back.
I am disappointed. This is so not like Google.
I Hate IT !!
Now I have over an inch of wasted space all the way down the left side of my iGoogle homepage on my laptop (sorry I don’t have a widescreen). If the option isn’t offered to use the top tabs I’ll be changinging my homepage.
The good news is that I’m finding out about options to iGoogle I didn’t know about…
This is the most cumbersome and useless change I have ever seen.
I have a wide-screen monitor, and I still hate it. It is the BIGGEST waste of real estate I have ever seen.
You give us the ability to set our screen layouts exactly the way we need them, then take away 15% of the real estate.
CHANGE IT BACK, OR AT LEAST PROVIDE AN OPTION FOR THE TABS ACROSS THE TOP FOR THOSE OF US WHO PREFER TO ORGANIZE OURSELVES AND NOT BE FORCED TO BY YOUR STUPID SCREENS.
All Google employees on this project should have their free lunches revoked for a year. Top dawg who green-lit it needs a year off without pay. Honestly, not thinking of making this an option?!
Your new left side bar sucks in plan English at least give us an option to use it or go back to the old layout with Tabs on top.
If you use firefox, install the ‘userstyles’ plugin and use this style to revert back to the old horizontal tabs
http://userstyles.org/styles/11351
Change this back please! I try hard to maximize the screen on my laptop and now Google comes along and takes a huge chunk for the home tab. What were they thinking? On their blog they say it’s good for developers. What about us ordinary mortals who just want to read our homepages without unilateral changes from above. Please change this back!
Forget iGoogle. Move on with Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com with a how-to-migrate
This new side bar is just plain stupid and I am baffled as to how it is supposed to help me. It is simply a redundant link to all the gadgets I already have positioned (the way I want them!) on my iGoogle page. If I can see my gmail in box and my Reuters top news stories right in front of me, why do I have to have a link to them on the left side of the screen? Does Google think I’m a complete idiot and maybe I need help finding them? I agree with the individual who said whoever is responsible for this should fired. They do not deserve the 6 figure incomes they make and should all be canned for incompetence!
I read about a site today called 43marks.com – its like iGoogle but better cuz you can add you own bookmarks and the bookmarks can be websites not just gadgets and RSS feeds although you can upload your favorite RSS feeds too. Its free and totally customizable. Plus you don’t have to login to see your bookmarks and RSS feeds cuz they give you a unique URL
I hate it, hate it. hate it. I spent alot of time getting my home page just the way I like it and now it makes me mad every time I open it. I also have a small monitor and I am not getting a bigger one anytime soon, this wastes so much space. Maybe they are planning to fill it with advertising? I think I will go back to Classic Google for now and explore other possibilities. I used to think Google was a great company but this is the sort of creepy thing Microsoft does.
If you look at the Ireland, Canada, France version of iGoogle, they made the home tab work for them by placing it where it isn’t annoying, but not for us. That’s just downright mean.
@hdalkdh – That is the previous version of the iGoogle homepage.
I removed it using the Firefox Add On – Remove It Permanently 1.0.6.4
It can be downloaded here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/521
It is simple to use. Once installed and active, navigate to your homepage and right-click on the annoying left tab and choose RIP Advanced from the drop-down. Make sure that the left side tab is now bordered in red to demo what will be removed and click Remove from this website or just Remove from this page.
Please get rid of the lefty side bar. It does not, in some cases allow the whole picture tome up.
who asked for it anyway?
Remove Stupid ‘Home’ Tab & Left Column
========================================
• From your iGoogle Home page, enter this into the address bar:
>> http://www.google.com/ig/settings
• From ‘Language’, select ‘English (UK)’
• Change NOTHING else
• Press ‘Save’ button at very bottom of page
Alternatively,
• Go to:
>> http://www.google.co.uk/ig
• Sign out & then back in
• Enter this in the address bar:
>> javascript:_dlsetp(’v2=0′);
• Save this page as your new homepage in Internet Explorer or other browser
>> Internet Explorer > from the menu > ‘Tools’ > ‘Internet Options’ > ‘General’ tab > ‘Use current’ button > ‘OK’
I hated the left side bar at first, but it was starting to grow on me. I have a 14″ laptop monitor, so at first I thought it was a waste of space, but after using it for two weeks I started to see the sense behind it. Although Google should have acting less like Great Uncle and rolled it out a bit more sensitively. Anyway, I also love the canvas view. But what happens? Just after I start loving it, it changes back! I am now back with the old igoogle, with tabs on top and no canvas view. If it had changed back a week ago I would have been happy but now, believe it or not, I’m missing my sidebar. Also, the new layout is still there if I log in from Firefox, but if I login from chrome, it’s the old layout……wonder why?
excellent engine
I prefer http://www.toadtastic.com. It looks like Google but you get a random funny pic every time you refresh the page. It’s great.