I have really enjoyed using my customized iGoogle homepage. It aggregates all of the information and entertainment that I visit on a daily basis. However, I was irritated with the functionality of some of the Google gadgets.
1. The Google Reader Gadget for iGoogle does not allow you to select a specific folder of RSS subscriptions to display on your page. This was problematic because I was getting 100s more feeds from my news sites than I was from my ITEC classmates. Most times I would miss the posts that my peers had made because of the frequency that new news articles were posted. I would have liked to see an option that allowed multiple gadgets on your site and a field to specify what feed you would like to view. Eventually, I figured out that Google Reader would add a folder specific feed to your iGoogle homepage, but you lose the scroll function available in the Google Reader Gadget. Nothing is perfect, so I am currently using the Google Reader gadget for my "News"(which includes all of my Google Reader subscriptions) and one Google Reader provided gadget for my ITEC 830 class(excluding the scroll feature - limit of 9 feed display) :(
2. The Gadgets in Google Sites appear to be quite similar to those available in iGoogle; however this is not the case. You can not add most iGoogle gadgets to your Google Site. I have found some instances where a gadget was developed for both iGoogle and Google Sites (ie. Google search, weather, clock). But I was surprised to see how much less developed the Google Sites gadgets are, especially within the Google family (ie, Google Reader). I think that a reader function for a site is really important. Especially, with all of the information available on the web that could be related to a site.
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