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Google Lets You Put Your Face on Google.com

by - source: Tom's Hardware US

Is Google taking a leaf out of Microsoft's book?

One of the nifty features of Bing is the Picture of the Day Microsoft has on the site's homepage. It brightens things up and though it does mean the page takes longer to load, Microsoft has said in the past that this decorative image loads last, while the search function loads first. In other words, it doesn't really affect speed at all. Now it looks like Google is looking to do something similar with it's famously minimalist homepage.

Google this week announced the ability for users to customise the homepage. You can choose an image from your computer, your Picasa albums or from the stock photos Google has on hand and replace all that white space with a nice sunset or a picture of your family.

Google is rolling out this feature to people in the U.S. over the next few days. If it's reached you, you should see a link in the lower left corner of your screen. However, I'm in Canada and already have it when I visit Google.com so you may get lucky too.

No word on how this is going to work with Google Doodles as the Google logo actually changes depending on which wallpaper you use (at least, it does when you use one of Google's stock photos). If it comes to picking between a picture of my cat and Pacman, I know what my decision will be. Sorry, Cujo.

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tghunt 06/04/2010 6:49 PM
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-10+

Only works if you log into your igoogle account. I rarely do so which makes this useless.

Anonymous 06/04/2010 6:54 PM
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Ragnar-Kon 06/04/2010 7:32 PM
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-8+

tghunt :
Only works if you log into your igoogle account. I rarely do so which makes this useless.



I can confirm this. I, however, am always logged into my google account, so not an issue for me.

michaelssw 06/04/2010 8:05 PM
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-1+

One time when i typed google.com I thought that they had adapted to my searches and changed its logo for me, but that was because i had a small keyboard and was hitting "B" instead of "G"

choujij 06/04/2010 8:06 PM
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-4+

At least this is an option. I quite like google's approach, where if stuff like this is important to you, you can customize your igoogle page.

sliem 06/04/2010 8:14 PM
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-0+

Nifty.

-Alessandro- 06/04/2010 8:34 PM
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I live in Panama and it's available for use here.

You just need to be signed in, but you don't need to use the iGoogle homepage, you could have the normal Google homepage with your background without all the other widgets of iGoogle.

supertrek32 06/04/2010 9:18 PM
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-5+

I set it to a cropped version of my desktop background so it looks transparent. Neat effect.

With chrome there's 87 pixels at the top, FYI. And Win 7 taskbar (with small icons) is 30px.

Gin Fushicho 06/05/2010 12:12 PM
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-1+

tghunt :
Only works if you log into your igoogle account. I rarely do so which makes this useless.



Well I got excited for nothing... it should remember it with cookies.

flachet 06/05/2010 12:29 PM
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-0+

Score.

Kelavarus 06/05/2010 1:40 AM
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supertrek32 :
I set it to a cropped version of my desktop background so it looks transparent. Neat effect.With chrome there's 87 pixels at the top, FYI. And Win 7 taskbar (with small icons) is 30px.



I think that's actually a pretty cool idea. Dunno why you got voted down. Maybe because you didn't say the height of Firefox, haha. Though Firefox is quite variable.

NapoleonDK 06/05/2010 1:51 AM
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supertrek32 :
I set it to a cropped version of my desktop background so it looks transparent. Neat effect.

Dude that's trippy. I love it! +1 sir!

randoMIZER 06/05/2010 5:53 AM
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People complain about lack of privacy online yet are willing to upload full page photos of themselves and their family to a company who's products are us. Homo Sapiens... the only species on Earth that evades logic.

G-Systems 06/06/2010 8:13 AM
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Tried it...love it! Now I look at my Baby-Girl anywhere I go and do a search. Very, very nice! This may be Google's way of saying, "We have TONS of space on our servers...and they're fast as hell!"

c00lit 06/10/2010 5:20 PM
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-0+

Now that I have it, by default there is a high res image... it sucks.

I do not want to login igoogle to remove it...

I am a tech and use RDP A LOT

Bad bad bad for me... no more google.ca or com for me.

firefox default from now on.

G-Systems 06/10/2010 9:19 PM
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c00lit :
Now that I have it, by default there is a high res image... it sucks.I do not want to login igoogle to remove it...I am a tech and use RDP A LOTBad bad bad for me... no more google.ca or com for me.firefox default from now on.



Your image will only show up if you're logged in. Are you trying the spread FUD, c00lit?

Let's be serious...

This is probably the easiest photo transfer I've seen in a while. To add and remove are a breeze. Tech? Ok...

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