APRIL 3, 2008

Personalize My Web

It’s all about the little things.  

Google and its accompanying products have brought web personalization to a new level.  Tuesday was April Fool’s Day.  As in years past (anyone remember Gmail Paper?), Google played a few April Fool’s jokes on their readers. One of them was “Gmail Custom Time”, or the ability to pre-date an email, like an late birthday or anniversary greeting. Here’s how it looked (click to enlarge):

Another thing Google likes to do is dress up its home page on different holidays - and not just the big holidays.  It likes to surprise us with graphics celebrating the occasions of famous people’s birthdays or the anniversary of the invention of Legos. 

For example, on Alexander Graham Bell’s Birthday - March 3, 2008:

Or, Valentine’s Day - February 14, 2008:

Or, the 50th anniversary of the LEGO brick - January 28, 2008:

The fun doesn’t end there.  We’ve written before about how iGoogle can personalize your homepage to feature exactly what you want and nothing else.  Google can also customize your searches to show results that should be the most relevant to what you want, based on your past searches. Google will also let you personalize maps to mark your favorite places and add your own text and photos.  

The list of innovative and personalized features goes on and on, as seen here and here.

All this is to say that companies like Google have realized that success means staying ahead of the curve and not resting once “the next big thing” has been introduced. Instead, successful companies are constantly looking for the next big thing after that and the one after that.  A simple feature like a map or email isn’t good enough - we want to personalize every feature, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, for our own individual tastes and preferences.  And Google doesn’t disappoint.  

What other companies do you like for offering personalized services?