Google Blogoscoped

Forum

New Artist Themes in iGoogle  (View post)

Jérôme Flipo [PersonRank 10]

Wednesday, April 9, 2008
16 years ago14,038 views

The page isn't live yet, but the link is on the iGoogle page
http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/gallery.html

Snapshot: http://base.googlehosted.com/base_media?q=hand4454357218516281046&size=1

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

I just got that link on my iGoogle page now. Brings up a 404 page for me too. Why push a link to users that doesn't even work?

The new link is also listed on the normal theme page:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/2399273349_c2c90829a8_o.png

Seems to be a javascript link:
function campaignLinkClick() {_sendx('/ig/nop?2008_campaign_click=1',function() { document.location = "/help/ig/art/gallery.html"; });}</script>

Jérôme Flipo [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

They both have disappeared.

It reminds me the SanFrancisco Mag about Marissa Mayer:
>"Mayer finally agreed to push forward with a plan to let interested users >customize the look of their page. And she’s done it with her trademark >brio, approaching a group of exceedingly cool artists—including game >designer Will Wright, fashion icons Oscar de la Renta and Todd Oldham, >and Mayer’s beloved Chihuly—to create “skins” that users can make part >of their iGoogle page. “Designer Themes for Google” is supposed to >launch sometime this month."

Daniel Marcum [PersonRank 0]

16 years ago #

Not cool! The link doesn't go anywhere!

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Jérôme Flipo, I'm still seeing the link on both pages. Still a 404 error in the US.

Adam [PersonRank 0]

16 years ago #

Yea I saw the same thing. It's already on digg: http://digg.com/design/iGoogle_Artist_Themes

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Not showing here in SF Bay

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

With certain themes, you can resize the page and all it shows is "Get artist".
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/2399430729_b6f7c7cb6f_o.png

The rest of the links disappear cause the link text matches the background color of the theme.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

so where are these things?

The other thing that is a MUST; drag and drop for rearranging page tab sequence. HellO?

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Brinke, One thing I thought of was what if you exported your settings and then imported them with the new order of the tabs setup in the xml file. You think that might work for what you want?

The export/import option is on the Settings page for iGoogle.

Tony Ruscoe [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Brinke, if you're even just a little bit familiar with XML (or even if you're not) this is a great solution from Colin! It worked for me but DON'T click the "Save" button after you do the import, otherwise it'll mess up the tab names.

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Thanks for testing that idea Tony!!!! I had thought about it briefly when I found the export/import option this week.

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

http://www.google.co.jp/intl/ja/help/ig/artist2008/airside.html

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Themes look to be stored here: http://skin.artistcampaign.googlepages.com

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

that page says 404

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Sorry, I couldn't test the link. The full link that redirects to the skin.artistcampaign page:

www.google.co.jp/ig/sharetheme?skin=http:// skin.artistcampaign.googlepages.com/airside.xml&source=jpac

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

The Artist Themes link is back on iGoogle and it works in the US now. There are currently 68 themes that you can choose from. The themes are from a wide variety of sources, like music bands Coldplay and Beastie Boys, to athletes like Lance Armstrong, to designer brands like Dolce & Gabbana.

http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/gallery.html
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2391/2453758077_14e231d03f_o.png
[Added screenshot – Colin]

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

http://www.google.com/help/ig/art/gallery.html

now live in SF

Shii [PersonRank 1]

16 years ago #

There's an excellent selection of Asian artists here. I applaud Google for their superb taste. They even have Osamu Tezuka!

Gotta cringe at including Mark Frauenfelder, though.

hebbet [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Google made a special logo:
http://www.google.com/logos/jeffkoons.gif

see on http://www.google.co.uk and http://www.google.fr

nothing on http://www.google.com

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

That new logo is now on Google.com with the following message below the search area:

"What happens when great art mixes with your homepage? iGoogle Artist Themes"
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3265/2453757909_60e52d91ab_o.png
[Added Screenshot – Colin]

Motti [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

When you click on the doodle it directs you to the iGoogle Artist Theme Page. I thinkthis is the first time Google has used a Doodle for product marketing.

Jérôme Flipo [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Motti
Don't forget that the next iGoogle could target Facebook! Such a goal would justifies "evil scale", but a Doodle isn't sacred and is primarily a marketing feature.
http://blogoscoped.com/forum/129311.html

Juha-Matti Laurio [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

In Finland too now:
http://www.google.fi/artistthemes

http://www.google.fi/ig/directory?type=themes&sort=newest

hebbet [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/where-art-thou.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1UJF4aK1s0

Above 25 comments were made in the forum before this was blogged,

TOMHTML [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

"Google in the US" > in France and UK too.

Colin Colehour [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Philipp, TomHTML and a few other people have mentioned this is available in more than just the US. I have seen it available in the following countries USA, Finland, France, UK, Korea, Japan, Australia and probably many more locales that I haven't tested yet.

Countries like Spain and Germany did not have the link on the main Google search page. I changed the theme directory URL to point to Google Germany URL and it loaded for me but not in german.

Philipp – Does this link allow you to change your iGoogle themes to one of the new artist themes?
http://www.google.de/help/ig/art/gallery.html

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

I've added an update, thanks.

Colin, your link shows in English for me – perhaps as I've set my browser language to English – and I'm using the experimental new version of iGoogle (and I'm always using google.com), but yes, I can add a theme from that link...

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

These are OK- none of them really jumped out @ me to be honest. I guess I am not the cartoony type- tho a Dilbert one would be nice- but this one is my favorite so far:

Kengo Kuma (隈研吾)
Architect Kengo Kuma has won numerous prizes and received international acclaim for his structures, which use traditional Japanese materials in modern and beautiful ways.

Zen, man.

Keith Chan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

These is Jacky Chan for Hong Kong :)

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

http://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=themes&url=skins/sampler.xml

themes now rotate

coolrepublica [PersonRank 1]

16 years ago #

'm a bit upset at this because it was my idea and I explicit
demand for Google using it and they stiffed me.

Here is my idea as I proposed it 6 months ago on the New York
Times Blog about google and yahoo using. It was the first
comment.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/inbox-20-yahoo-and-google-to-turn-e-mail-into-a-socia-network/

"For your grand launch of the IGoogle social network have
Takashi Murakami design themes exclusively for IGoogle. He is
expensive but Google can afford him and trust me people will
sign up in drove just to have his themes as their background on
IGoogle. Of course there are many other famous underground
and main stream artists that would get a great response as well.

If Google decides to use my ideas, I want a tour of Googleplex
and I want to meet Sergey and give him a haircut. These are my
terms and I’m not budging.
——
coolrepublica"

I'm sure someone at Google got a bonus for proposing this idea
to their boss. I hope they choke on it.

Jérôme Flipo [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

I want a them designed by Randall Munroe from xkcd!
I hope some Googlers have had this idea and invited Randall, otherwise I would be really disappointed :(

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

China have many artists.
Why no Chinese Artist?
Where is the Google.cn's work?

Ionut Alex. Chitu [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Jackie Chan, Alice Mak and Tim Yip are Chinese, Jimmy Liao is from Taiwan.

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Sorry, my meaning is Chinese Style artist. No matter the artist is Chinese or not.
Jackie is movie star. Others artists? They are western copies, no chinese style.

1.Zhang Daqian
http://zuosa.com/photo/mms/00/00/3D/60615756.jpg

2.QI Baishi
http://zuosa.com/photo/mms/00/00/3D/71015757.jpg

3.Xu Beihong
http://zuosa.com/photo/mms/00/00/3D/82115758.jpg

4.A sprite student of Qi Baishi from AU
http://zuosa.com/photo/mms/00/00/3D/90215759.jpg

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]Ionut Alex. Chitu

Also, no artist dir in "Chinese Language"

Brinke Guthrie [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

some of the themes need a little work. IE, the Chihuly one's + links next to news stories...dont appeareven tho hyper-linked. And others have white color at the spot where 'add gadgets' and 'change themes' are, rendering them mostly invisible.

Shii [PersonRank 1]

16 years ago #

Nice point, Hong Xiaowan. While East Asian artists doing a Western style are necessarily more innovative than Western artists, they didn't include the drawings from the traditional Chinese or Korean styles.

Java Diva [PersonRank 0]

16 years ago #

On the topic of the iGoogle themes, I came across this earlier today:

http://www.google.com/ig/authors?hl=en&author=gadgets%40garrisonphoto.org

It's apparent from the comments to these developer's widget that G users are surprised and displeased that someone could get away with excessive keywording like this. I'm wondering, why something hasn't been done about it?

Maybe your thoughts on this practice in a future post? Thanks!

Forum home

Advertisement

 
Blog  |  Forum     more >> Archive | Feed | Google's blogs | About
Advertisement

 

This site unofficially covers Google™ and more with some rights reserved. Join our forum!