Views on New Google Personalized Homepage
You may have noticed that I didn't have too much to say about the new Google Personalized Homepage yesterday. There was a reason.

I spoke to a number of real journalists at the Factory Tour and didn't want to make my comments known, until they had a chance to get their story out. Here's a round-up of my thoughts...

San Fran Chronicle - thanks Verne

Andy Beal, vice president of search marketing for WebSourced, which helps companies with online advertising, called Google's personalized home page feature a logical step for the company. Some analysts have criticized the firm for burying some of its features where they are less visible to potential new users and difficult to get to for existing ones.

"Google offers a lot of products," Beal said. "It makes sense to allow people to put them all on one page."

At the same time, Beal commented that Google's move puts it even closer to becoming a Web portal like its rival Yahoo. It is a comparison that the company's executives wholeheartedly deny, instead casting their mission as helping to connect users with the world's information.

San Jose Mercury News - thanks Mike

"I don't see how you can avoid the [portal] label,'' said Andy Beal, a vice president for WebSourced, a search-engine marketing firm. "When you touch the lives of people and everything that they do online, and then you put it all in one place, you're essentially a portal.''

It may have taken Google awhile to follow Yahoo's lead but the move was inevitable, according to Beal.

"Regardless of the criticism that they are years late, they had to have this,'' he said.

LA Times - thanks Chris

Andy Beal, a vice president at Internet marketing firm WebSourced Inc., said Google's new service was crucial and long overdue.

"To get to all the Google properties, you've had to go to your Internet Explorer bookmarks and click on each one," said Beal, who also runs the website Search Engine Lowdown. "Every time you ask someone to go from one website to another, you risk losing them to a competitor. With the personalized home page, Google has got some control over where they go."
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