If you already have a gmail account or have signed up for a free ‘Google account’ in order to use services like Google groups (the old DejaNews), you may have noticed that you can ’sign in’ to the standard Google search page. Beyond keeping track of your search history (much like your browser keeps track of where you go in it’s ‘history’), you also get access to a ‘personalized dashboard’ at http://www.google.com/ig, that’s ‘forward slash i g’. If you use Google as your ‘homepage’ (I don’t), you might find some of the things offered here useful. Yahoo also offers personalization if you have a free Yahoo account at http://my.yahoo.com/. Which one is better depends on which service you’re talking about. Google is certainly a juggernaut, but Yahoo still does some stuff better.The Google dashboard is simpler, less cluttered with ads and allows it’s configuration right on the main page, providing little blocks you can add and remove in which to keep RSS feeds (from New York Times, BBC, in8sworld, etc.), weather for your area, personal stock quotes, your gmail inbox, some personal bookmarks, etc. as well as links to your searchable history and the standard Google search form.

Yahoo, Google’s main competitor also offers some of these sorts of services, like weather and top news stories on it’s main page, but it’s not at all as configurable as Google’s. You can more in the ‘My Yahoo’ section with RSS feeds. Yahoo offers Yahoo Groups which provides free web-based mailing groups (paid for through advertisements you have to wade through as you read the posts), but these Groups are highly configurable and provide the admins web space and really powerful tools. I use ‘Yahoo finance’ much more often than my real broker’s website since it’s got so much more info, and it’s easier to access. I also use ‘Yahoo messenger’ to video conference with a webcam on occassion, although not to IM generally. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple to configure the ‘My Yahoo’ page - it’s not as clearly laid out. Google’s simplicity really trumps Yahoo in that regard.

It’s interesting how these two offer so much of the same stuff, in different ways, and yet their stock prices are so vastly different.