I have been using Google for a long time, as has everyone else on the planet apparently. Sometime last year I started using Googles personalized homepage with features like quote of the day and how-to of the day and small things like that. More recently it seems that this has taken off and everone is talking about what they have on their google homepage and how to customize it and now with interactive themes that change according to the time. It seems a lot like the old days way back when of AOL home pages or even Yahoo home pages which I am sure a lot of people still use. Makes me think really that the huge underlying reason for all this is the growth of Gmail and Gtalk. I would say easily that 6-10 of my friends are now using gmail many of which I either converted myself or watch convert in the time we have emailed each other.

I remember Gmail from when it first started and I managed to be a beta tester and then they gave us 5 invites each to pass out to our friends, which I promptly gave out to myself so that I could get more invites and so I had about 5-6 emails 3 of which I still use on a regular basis and I have probably handed out over 100 invites before they stopped using invites. I even gave a bunch away to those sites that gave them to soldiers overseas and stuff which made me feel good.

Now that my Gmail account effectively has over 8000 emails and my entire family has an account as well as all my roommates and almost everyone in my office and almost everyone I instant message a Day I would say Gmail is on its way to taking over as the #1 free email client.

So I guess that all leads back to why Googles homepage is now so popular. Not only do you get the #1 search engine as your homepage but you get to customize it to a degree for your own needs including a quick few of your gmail account, some RSS feeds, the News, Weather, and all those other do-dads like Youtube, Calvin and Hobbes, Penny-Arcade and thousands of other things you can have. How long will it last..who knows? But I should probably get back to work. haha

Cheers