Top Six Useful iGoogle Gadgets for Online Business

Now that "cloud" computing is here, everybody is heaving a sigh of relief that they don't have to buy, download, or install as much software. We'll always need some, but isn't it becoming a nice bonus that you can offload a lot of tasks to the platform of the Internet itself, and use them just by using a web browser? Not big things, of course, but those little side items that are too important to do without, but not important enough to go to a lot of trouble for.

iGoogle's personalized home page service understands this very well. Recently revamped, it has become a sleek, attractive portal that you can customize by adding gadgets, most of which are developed by third parties. So you can build your own home page, create tabs and name them, and sort into many categories for work and play. It works for anything from a desktop machine to a smartphone.

Here, we'd like to share a selection of gadgets for iGoogle which we'd like to recognize for their usefulness. Whether you're a busy executive in a big company or a small-time entrepreneur on your way up, these gadgets will make you just a little bit smarter and more productive.

World Clocks

Does what it says on the tin. Track the time in numerous time zones, and you can add up to nine clocks to the same group, with labels, and switch between analog and digital. Absolutely necessary for the Internet worker who has a team scattered halfway around the globe.

To-Do List

Very simple. Type in whatever you want, hit 'add', set the priority to low, medium, or high, and delete an item at will. Useful and unobtrusive.

Translate

Again, very useful for the international nature of web business. You can edit the top field, and copy and paste from the bottom field which is the language you're translating to. It works with about 24 languages right now, but it doesn't have Latin yet, so you'll still have to pay your lawyer to understand that.

Currency Converter

Self-explanatory. Not only can you find between any two world currencies at the click of a button, but it even converts to and from precious metals and obsolete currencies. We don't know how many there are in the list; it looks like more than a hundred currency units in the menu. It's also continuously updated over the web, so it's right up to the minute.

Unit Converter

We also call it the "deal with the United States tool", since the United States is going to cling to imperial units forever. Converts between various units of length, weight (mass for you science majors), temperature, volume, bytes, and speed.

Google Finance Market Summary

Now, with the financial markets the way they've been lately, how many times a day do you go check the world market data online? We've caught ourselves doing it before we hit the sports news in the morning. This gadget gives you your choice of US (Dow, NASDAQ, S&P), Canada (TSX) and United Kingdom (UK FTSE, techMARK) market indexes, as well as currency and bond rates. Keep your aspirin bottle handy.

Filed Under: Mobile Computing • Mobile Internet • Product Reviews • The Internetz

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