I got a Google surprise when I launched my Firefox yesterday. My iGoogle homepage was wider and I now have more useful choices of applications to add.

Plus the other features that I get to see only when I hit the Home button are also displayed on the left side. I can just point my mouse on any one of them and voila!

They call this “full canvas views.” It’s cool, actually.

Take a look:

1. The iGoogle homepage. As I have said, with this new template, it’s much easier to navigate from one function to another.

2. The Gmail on iGoogle. I don’t like this part much. Because from this page, I need to do one more click (that is “Launch Full Gmail”) to get to view my email and enjoy its full feature. You see, in the old iGoogle, when I clicked on Gmail from the homepage, I’d be directed to the “full Gmail” already. That’s definitely one click less. As a Lean advocate, that means a lot to me.

In the last couple of months, Google has been spinning new interesting services: the Google Chrome and the Google Mapmaker made available in the Philippines.

I have yet to try the two, so until then.

Related story:
iGoogle Gets an Upgrade