You've probably heard about Google's search engine, but have you heard about Google Gadgets? At its simplest, Google Gadgets allow you to customize your Google homepage with fresh content from the content providers that you choose.

Hard to visualize right? Maybe, a step-by-step example will help you better.

Step 1. Visit http://www.google.com/ig.

Here you should see some examples of Google Gadgets with live content. If you've already logged in to your Google Account, skip to Step 3. Otherwise, click on the "Sign In" link at the upper-right hand corner of the screen.

Step 2. Signin to your Google Account.

Signin with your Google email and password. If you don't have an account with Google yet, you can click on the link at the bottom-right section of the screen that says "Create an account now." After signing in you should be back to your initial page in Step 1 with a slight difference.

Step 3. Click on the "Add Content" link.

The "Add Content" link at the upper-left corner of the screen leads you to a page showing various content providers. There are thousands of Google Gadgets available out there providing a great variety - fresh news, stock quotes, clocks, stock charts, jokes of the day, quotes of the day, to do lists, weight trackers, dictionaries, glossaries, games, and a lot, lot more. Because, there are thousands of content providers, you can choose to search for a gadget that you like, so that's what we'll do next.

Step 4. Type "articledigger" in the search box and click "Search Homepage Content".

This should pull up a Google Gadget provided by ArticleDigger.com. Of course, you can change the search phrase to anything you want to suit your preferences. But for this example, do try the given search phrase as the succeeding steps depend on it.

Step 5. Click the "Add it now" button.

If all goes well, your gadget would have been added to your Google HomePage.

Step 6. Go back to the homepage at http://www.google.com/ig

As you can see, a section in your Google homepage now displays content from ArticleDigger.com. If you will notice, each section has an "edit" link at the top-right corner of each gadget. This typically allows you to customize the gadget to your preferences. We will try to do that next.

Step 7. Click on the "edit" link for the ArticleDigger.com Gadget.

The "edit" link now shows you the options that control the gadget. For this particular gadget, you can choose which topic you want, the text font and text size, and the foreground and background colors. Google gadgets allow you to change preferences to customize the resulting content for you.

Step 8. Make some changes then click "Save"

Voila! Your preferences would have changed the look and feel of the Google Gadget.

Conclusion

Google Gadgets offer you a way to get content personalized to your needs. With thousands of available gadgets, you can have a field day picking the content you want. Enjoy!