14 DAY TRIAL // Twitter owes a lot of its recent popularity to all the attention it’s been getting from celebrities. Now Google is trying to get some of that spotlight and is announcing iGoogle Showcase, which allows you to see what your favorite celebrity's iGoogle homepage looks like and also add the widgets they're using to your own homepage.
iGoogle is a feature that allows you to customize your home page at Google with widgets showing information such as weather, news, photo slideshows or RSS. You will also be able to add the widgets celebrities are recommending or using or even their entire page. There are even some widgets created for a specific celebrity that you can use. For now Google has added 30 stars to the list. Of course, everyone's definition of a celebrity may vary but there are some pretty well-known people there.
Right on top of the list is Al Gore, former vice president in the US turned climate-change activist. Going to his iShowcase page you'll see a short biography of him as well as a screenshot of his iGoogle homepage and a list of the individual gadgets he uses with a short description of them by Al Gore himself. For example, he uses a widget from Current News, which is run by the company he owns, plus one from the New York Times. “An essential. Keeps me up to date on the world's headline and changes every time I log in,” he writes. But he also keeps it light with a widget that shows 'notable' quotes from Jon Stewart, the popular TV presenter known for his colorful commentaries.
Some celebrities have created their own widgets you can use. Donald Trump's gadget for example gives advice to entrepreneurs from the man himself. Martha Stewart also has one, a gadget that shows recipes and tips. The iGoogle feature has been getting some updates and upgrades lately, having been recently added some more themes and social widgets, and may receive some more social features in the future.