That’s right! As of yesterday, iGoogle has integrated the chatting feature into the start page.

Now you don’t have to leave your Gmail up to be able to chat with your friends. You don’t even have to add the Google Talk gadget. Google Talk is now built into the sidebar of your iGoogle page.

There are some differences worth noting. In your iGoogle page, you will not be able to do any of the following. These features will still only be available in Gmail.

• Pop out windows
• Offline messages
• Group chat
• AIM integration
• Video chat

However, there is a perk to chatting in iGoogle. You can talk with all of your friends, even if they don’t have a Gmail address. Simply invite them to chat through the iGoogle interface. Once they sign up for iGoogle with their personal email, you can start chatting away.

Are you excited about chatting in iGoogle?

Google Talk Now Available in iGoogle

Depending on your browser, you can either drag the link above to your bookmark toolbar, or right click the link and add it to your favorites/bookmarks. Whenever you visit iGoogle, click the bookmarklet and you’ll be able to expand/minimize your Gadgets.

Expand / Minimize Bookmarklet for iGoogle Gadgets

In this post, you will learn how to use Greasemonkey scripts to change the behavior of the page you are viewing. And one of the scripts is even brought to you by the Unofficial Google Gadget Blog!

What is Greasemonkey?

Greasemonkey is a Mozilla FireFox add-on that enhances the browser experience by letting the user change the page with scripts. Changes can be made to most web pages. With Greasemonkey, any change that is made will be carried out every time the page is loaded.  Just make sure to leave Greasemonkey on and any changes made to a web page will be “permanent.”

To continue, please install the following:

• Install Mozilla FireFox
  
• Install Greasemonkey
• Install Greasefire
• Restart Mozilla FireFox

Now, you should see two little monkeys, as pictured to the left and with fire surrounding it,  on the bottom right side of your web page. Click on the image and make sure that “Enabled” is checked.

Using Greasemonkey in iGoogle

Now that the set up is complete, go to your iGoogle page. Once on the page, click on the little monkey with the fire surrounding him . This will show you all the Greasemonkey scripts available for this web page.  You will see that 357 scripts are available for iGoogle.

Yikes! That’s a lot. So what now? Clicking on the “357 scripts” will open a new window that allows you to browse through all the scripts that are available.

To save time, I have posted links to two scripts that you can use right away. Click on the links and hit “Install.”

Minimize & Maximize Gadgets in iGoogle
This script adds a +/- icon to the title bar of every gadget. This allows you to easily minimize gadgets when not in use and maximize them right away when you do want to use them. This script really helps you to not delete the gadgets you love. (”Delete this gadget” & “Minimize this gadget” are right on top of each other.)

Resize Columns in iGoogle
This script allows you to change the width of your columns in iGoogle. Once the script is installed, you will see two little gray boxes in between your columns. Dragging your mouse left and right between the columns will resize them.

What’s Next?

You can also visit UserScripts.org to see what other scripts are available for the various pages you may visit on the web. This site is a directory of all the Greasemonkey scripts that web developers have written.

As you can see, Greasemonkey is a tool that allows you customize your web pages with as many features as you would like. Who wouldn’t want custom upgrades for your browser?

How to Tweak Your iGoogle Page with Greasemonkey

There are two ways.

Each gadget has a two icons in the top right corner of the title bar. Clicking the “arrow” icon on the left reveals a dropdown menu with ‘Delete this gadget’ as an option among others, which I will explain at some later date.

The second way to delete a gadget is by editing the Tab to which the gadget belongs. This is sometimes the only way to delete a gadget…gadgets with an apostrophe in their title break the dropdown menu mentioned in the first option. Anyhow, each tab has a similar arrow icon that reveals a dropdown menu when clicked. From there, choose ‘Edit this tab’ which will pull up a page where you can delete the gadgets on that tab.

How to Delete a Gadget in iGoogle

With all the buzz about who wore what, it’s very easy to get caught up in all the post-Oscar news.

But if you just want to know about the winners, “The Academy Awards Oscars Gadget” in iGoogle will tell you. You can search Oscar nominees by year and by category.

This gadget told me that Sean Penn won an Oscar last night for his role in Milk and he won an Oscar for his role in Mystic River back in 2004. Two Oscars in five years is pretty impressive.

See Oscar Winners Past & Present in iGoogle

While trying to use my iGoogle page today, I have received this error message in many of my gadgets. I am not sure what is going on with the homepage this morning.

Many users are reporting the same thing with their homepages.

What’s going on iGoogle? How can we share our love when you are broken?

“We’re Sorry” Says iGoogle

Well the GoComics gadget from UCLICK lets me have those Sundays mornings again–every day.

The gadget is very sleek and easy to use. You can click through the comics with ease and the pages does not reload every time. I love that I can choose from a variety of comic strips. The canvas view makes scrolling through the strips much more fun.

Do you have this gadget on your iGoogle page? Will you be adding it?

Read a Comic Everyday in iGoogle

The Calculator gadget is a simple and easy-to-use gadget. There’s no mess and no fuss here. In the home view, all you see is the calculator. It is only in the canvas view that the developer has a small blurb about the gadget and some ads.

I love that this gadget also has some customization features. You can change the color of the buttons on the calculator. You can also change the background of the calculator.

All in all, a great little mathematical tool for my iGoogle page.

Do Some Math in iGoogle

In the home view, the gadget does not take up much screen real estate at all. It is designed to allow you simply input your starting point, destination and then get directions.

The directions are showcased in the canvas view.  In this view, you can adjust your starting and end point, see your directions, see a map view of the directions and even a street view of your directions.

I love how everything  is neatly packaged together in the gadget.  There are however, two options, missing from this gadget. There’s needs to be an email option and a print option.

Do you already have this gadget on your iGoogle page? If not, will you be adding it?

Driving Directions in iGoogle

The “First Lady Michelle Obama Fashion Watch” gadget allows users in iGoogle to keep up with Michelle Obama. The gadget has dated entries where you can see what the First Lady wore on her daily outings.

I love that this gadget allows you to scroll through the pictures, without having to refresh your page each time. It is a definite time saver. I also love that you can adjust the size of the picture in the settings. You can save real estate on your page when you are not actively looking at the gadget.

Will you be adding this gadget to your iGoogle page?

Follow the First Lady in iGoogle