I don't normally write about technical or web topics, but as someone who's prone to information overload, this is one I thought was worth sharing.

I just recently started using the personalized home page option on Google. This allows anyone to customize the standard Google home page with all manner of information, news feeds, and miscellaneous gadgets and handy tools.

I normally try and keep up with a lot of different news sources--local news, some of the major progressive news sites, music news, all kinds of things. My most recent forays into audio blogs (more on that in a later post, probably) finally tipped the scales and pushed me to seek a better way to keep track of it all without having to take a long time to browse a ton of sites.

Enter the new Google home page. In just a few minutes of customizing, I now have quick access to a vast amount of information all on one page, with a layout that makes it easy to track and not get overwhelmed by. To give you an idea, my home page includes:

• News feeds from the Huffington Post, Alternet, Democracy Now, the New York Times, Pitchfork (music news), Ain't It Cool News (movie-geek news), and the Columbia Daily Tribune
• Updates on about a dozen audio blogs I subscribe to via RSS
• The latest messages in my Gmail account
• A three-day weather forecast
• A to-do list that automatically sorts by priority
• A 'sticky note' notes-to-self area
• A photo of the day from National Geographic
• A daily set of brain teasers and math puzzles
• A Buddhist 'thought of the day'
• A free font of the day
• A virtual guitar neck that can identify and play any chord

(There are also some very handy-looking iTunes widgets you can add, but since I don't have access to it at work, I haven't added them yet.) On a second tab--one click away--I have several more items on top of that, but this allows me to keep all of my most frequently accessed content all in one place and scan it so much more quickly than ever before. Sometimes I'll catch myself thinking, "okay, where do I need to go next?"--and then realizing that I'm already caught up on everything I need to be. It's been a great time saver so far, and is highly recommended.

Labels: Life