I have noticed that when I am signed out of my Google Account on the computer I use most the default arrangement and choice of modules is the same as those that I have when I am signed in. Of course since I am not signed in my Gmail/Reader/Calendar modules are rendered useless (they display a message like: sign in to see this content).

But surely the modules I have chosen is something personal to me that I may not want sharing. I wouldn't say that it applied to me really I am don't have a choice of modules that I am particularly sensitive about. But some people may.

Here is what it looks like signed out (with all those "please sign in" messages):

http://aycu22.webshots.com/image/861/1292785290866128312_rs.jpg

Settings are saved in a cookie.

All the modules chosen and their layout?

yes, Sam has a point.

Why would a randam user of google, get the modules of "signed" in user. ?? Notice the screen scrap.. it does NOT display the user's creditentials .. so why is reading a "specifc cookie" and pulling in the modules for display ??

I have also replicated this .. and me to does not like this.. why should another user of /ig see what I have as my defaulted modules --should not my hompy be MINE and mine only ??

http://slash.pd.googlepages.com/igbreech.png

Mine, too.

Google really insn't telling people what "your" page looks like, only what random other people have for a layout. Maybe this is to bring to light other layouts that people aren't aware of.

I think it is pretty new as during the World Cup they had a generic homepage featuring World Cup content when you had signed out. And before that I think they had another generic page.

I think that when someone turned off the World Cup thing something went wrong giving this thing.

Nate they are showing my page. Given they don't tell anyone that it is mine. But it is mine.

I can't replicate this. If I sign out, I get a default look with: Calendar, NYT, HowTo, Weather, Google News, Google Video.

Maybe this helps:
http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=31721&topic=1592

Yeah, it's a bit of a privacy problem. What if you're at work, and you subscribed to a girl of the day widget, and you log out? You ought not expect that someone your boss calling up google.com/ig sees the girl of the day :)

yeah...I wannaa "girl of the day widget" – where do I find that :)-

>yeah...I wannaa "girl of the day widget" – where do I find that :)-
Ask Caleb, the Top Google Gadget Developer, or create your own.

I don't have that problem btw, it changes back to the default view after I signed out.

Ok who had the world cup widget and then removed it ?? I know that Sam and me had this. Can Haochi and Ionut confirm that they DID NOT have the module on their /ig ??

I did have the world cup module, and removed it yesterday since the games were over. But today I see the module on /ig, even if I logout.

As I said,
>> it changes back to the default view after I signed out.

Mine also reverts to the standard IG page when I'm logged out. Perhaps this only happens for people who customized the IG page before signing in...?

Nope, I made the change while logged in...never added anything when logged out. And it's not jsut the world cup module – RSS feeds I have showing up also appear when logged out.

I just want back and started removing ALL the module under / ig AFTER I signed out.. and then signed back in [saw my normal hompy] and loged out again.. it reverts itself to the std google page..

I think that there must a /ig default cookie – that is being used!!

wierd part.. I automatically got logged out from gmail, when i signed out off /ig!!

Sam,
   I guess I'll have to agree with you on this. I was thinking that is was more random than what it's turning out to be. I can see where this could lead to some privacy issues if someone came behind you. The other thing I thought of later was the fact that all of this information is stored in your personal cookie, so could this be datamined?

/pd: yeah, there seems to be a link there through the Google Account. I have occassionally seen similar behavior when logging out of Google Groups (get logged out of /ig and gmail). I think most of the services under the Google account (adsense is an exception that comes to mind) will mimic this behavior as well. It's all about the single sign-on!

I am still having the sign out and retain my modules thing. But at least I know how to remedy it by deleting the modules when signed out. Since I am the only person who uses this machine I have no need to do this. But Google has a large audience and as many agree above this *could* be an issue in *some* cases. I just hope a Googler sees this thread and changes it.

---

Yes the Google Account uses some technology (I'll put my head on the line and say it is session variables – but it is at least something *like* that).

If you sign out of any core service like Reader / IG / Gmail / Spreadsheets / PSearch etc. Then you are signed out of your account and you have to sign in to use something else Googly.

Analytics is another exception, I normally have to type my password for that.

I can find 2 Google cookies that have the path /ig in them.

If you watch the address bar when you sign out of a Google service, it will sometimes do several redirects – each one appears to sign you out of each Google service you were logged in to (or had used that session). So, the more services you were logged in to, the longer it takes to sign out.

Sam Davyson said:

<< Analytics is another exception, I normally have to type my password for that. >>

Which URL are you using? I've found if you go to the main Analytics page – http://www.google.com/analytics/ – you have to type your password. However, if you go to the reports summary page – https://www.google.com/analytics/home/ – you get straight in.

This seems to work indeed. Isn't it strange that there is no common authentication strategy and that the way you get logged in is different depending on the different url's you use?

Tony : interesting, I just confirmed that the (analytics) URL take me stright to my landing page without authenentication at all!!

I always used to get prompted for pwd.. now I kinda have a little bit more seamless expereince...!

thanks for the tip, I changed bookmark :)-