Well I have been given a "fan-boy" title.  Since I have been writing about Google’s many products and features for a few weeks I was emailed recently and asked why I was such a Google Fanboy. 

I have used that term before (re: Apple) so figured this time I would look it up and online at Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.  MW said that a fanboy is a boy who is an enthusiastic devotee (as of comics or movies).  OK, I agree I am an enthusiastic devotee of Google and I sometimes wish I were a boy, so "sticks and stones…"  One very interesting thing I found was that the term was first used in 1919.  I wonder what they were fanboys of in those days… possibly the Treaty of Versailles or Lady Astor? 

OK, on to my next "fanboy" item.  Google has created a neat place to keep track of all the latest news, sports, weather, emails and on-and-on.  If you are a Gmail account owner you get this free and can customize it the way you like.  This "place" is called iGoogle (igoogle.com).

Go to the site and if you aren’t already logged into your Gmail, log into the site with your Gmail username/email address and password. 

Once logged into your account you get a default setting of iGoogle.  This default changes from time-to-time.  Today I saw four "gadgets"; the Weather for Chicago, current date and time, YouTube Spotlight Videos and CNN’s top stories.  These can all be edited, removed or rearranged on the page.  For instance you could change it from Chicago weather to your local zip code to get current weather happenings.

Gadgets are mini windows made by Google users which offer active content and can be placed on your iGoogle page.  They may be placed on any page you own.  Beware!  This is for the more adventurous only!  Check out DoubleClicks.info for samples.

My iGoogle page contains eight gadgets I like.  First is Google Latitude which shows all of my friends’ locations in Google maps if they choose to reveal them to me.  Next is a gadget showing my Gmail, followed by my calendar, RSS news feeds, local weather, movies currently running at my local theaters (with times, etc.), FOX News and last a How to of the Day. 

You can choose from thousands of different gadgets and take that literally…there are currently over 280,000 of them.  To install one you click the gadget link on your page, find one in the new window, open and click Install.  That’s all there is to it.

Now let’s get real, many of them are time wasters like adding a hamster on a wheel to your page or a spider that follows your cursor around. I just have to ask, why?   However, some of them are very beneficial for personal or business uses.

Set up your own iGoogle page and let me know which gadgets you like.

Tags: cnn, devotee, fanboy, Gmail, google, igoogle, lady astor, merriam webster, sticks and stones, treaty of versailles, weather

I received many emails asking me more about Firefox Add-ons after last week’s column.  So today we are going to look at a few more.  Keep those emails coming since I want to write about what interests you!

If you have any questions about basic Firefox Add-ons you need to read last week’s column about "Invisible Hand" and "Tabloc" online at the DNR or at the DoubleClicks.info site.   

"Forecastbar Enhanced" is another helpful add-on.  It allows you to set your location, via zip code, to get your local weather forecasts.  The forecasts are from Accuweather.com.  Other than the current weather forecasts, radar images, etc., you can display it in different locations in FF.  I keep mine in the status bar at the bottom of the Firefox window, which is the default.  You can also set it up to show forecasts for several days in the future. 

The next one I would like to share with you is called, "FoxTab".  "FoxTab" will allow you to set the sites you most often visit.  It will allow you to add any site to your top site "list" and quickly go to it at another time.  It enables a screen preview of "My Top Sites" in several great GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) which you can pick from.  Not only is it useful, it also looks good.  Once you bring your top site window up by clicking a button on your toolbar, you click on the site you want to go to and it pops right up.  Yes, this is like your favorites but in a slick new format.

The last one I will mention today is for you Gmail users.  It is called, "Gmail Manager".  This add-on allows you to set your Gmail account to be visible in your status bar, showing your unread emails.  By clicking on the account it will open your Gmail account in Firefox as if you had logged into Gmail.com yourself.  Then you can deal with your emails as you normally would.  It is set to a default of checking for new emails every 15 minutes but you can adjust that, along with other settings in the options for this add-on.  It will also allow you to keep track of multiple Gmail accounts at the same time.  Of course, that is for you geeks who, like me have more than one Gmail account.

Have fun trying these out and remember they are all free.  If you don’t like them you can easily uninstall them. 

Let me know if you would like to see some more next week…I have about 20 add-ons that I use in Firefox.

Tags: accuweather, add-in, add-on, Firefox, Forecast, foxtab, Gmail, GUI, mozilla, radar, tabloc, weather