Google Leak Reveals Personalized Pages

Google is expected to announce a personalized home-page service on Thursday as part of an all-day press event at its campus in Mountain View, Calif., according to presentation slides leaked onto the Web.

The service, which appears to be scheduled to be available from the Google Labs site, would allow users to create their own Web pages featuring Googles expanding set of services, such as its Gmail e-mail, news search and Google Maps driving directions.

Google spokespeople declined to comment on the plans, but Webloggers who joined the press event by Webcast posted slides that had appeared momentarily online and in which the beta service is announced.

Google executives are scheduled to discuss the personalized home-page service during an afternoon presentation, according to the slides.

With the move, Google would join its top competitors in offering a way for individual users to create their own view into online services. Both Yahoo Inc. and MSN offer personalized home pages and recently have expanded them to include outside sources by aggregating RSS feeds.

/zimages/4/28571.gifClick hereto read about MSNs push to expand RSS-based services.

While details about how Google will differentiate its service from Yahoo and MSN were not available, the slides state that the service will include drop-and-drag functionality.

The slides about the personalized home-page service were first posted and reported by the blog Pandemia. The Search Engine Watch blog later posted the days full deck of slides before pulling them from the site.

Among the other Google services integrated into personalized home pages will be weather, stock and movie information, according to the slides. The slides also state that information from outside sources such as the New York Times, the BBC and Slashdot can be included in the service.

/zimages/4/28571.gifRead detailshereabout Googles new mobile blogging service.

It was unclear whether Googles stab at home-page personalization would use emerging RSS or Atom syndication technologies for tying in content from other Web sites.

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