Angus Kidman18 January 2008, 1:03 AM
Me, I like porn stars; dodgy 80s music; hurling random abuse at George Bush and celebrating operating system failure screens. But according to Google, building a theme for my iGoogle homepage around any of them isn't actually possible.
Google is allowing anyone to develop themes for use on its customised home page, but don't get too excited -- there's a bunch of restrictions in place that eliminate many of the more obvious and compelling choices.
In a posting earlier this week on its official blog, Google announced that it had opened up the API used for creating themes on iGoogle, making it possible for individuals to roll their own options. Despite the fact that an intrinsic part of Google's appeal is often assumed to be its minimalist home page, it seems people actually want to clutter their search screen with photos, hidden Easter eggs and other irrelevant junk.
"Whether you like outer space, cartoons, dogs, or anything else, you can now create your own theme and help personalize iGoogle for millions of people," iGoogle product manager Kevin Tom proclaimed.
 iGoogle: but do no evil, please. |
 Jenna, I Google thee: but you can't take pride of place on my iGoogle. |
Now speaking for myself, I like porn stars; dodgy 80s music; hurling random abuse at George Bush, my next door neighbours, and Apple and Linux users; and working out new ways to make money online. But building a theme around most of those isn't actually possible.
Although it's little more than a footnote to the original posting, Google has some fairly strict policies about what can be submitted to its theme directory.
Among the items you can't link to are "illegal content" (so no themes around BitTorrent warez), promotions of hate (goodbye to those Dubya themes), pornography or obscenity (so much for my Jenna Jameson fan content) or even "mature sexual themes" in general (OK, I didn't want to build a hot grannies theme anyway). You're not even allowed to link to "crude and indecent language", so that's my university thesis scuppered as the basis for a theme.
Another requirement is that the theme doesn't "mimic system functionality or warnings". In particular, you can't "mimic or resemble Windows/Mac/Unix dialogue boxes or error messages". I guess Commodore 64 screens (syntax error, anyone?) would be OK.
Equally interestingly, you're not allowed to include any Google AdWords links in the theme. So much for profiteering. Leave that to the professionals.
At first glance, that seems to suggest my best option remains that Bananarama theme. But you're also not supposed to violate intellectual property rights. As Google has shown in its stoush with the Scientologists this week over video footage of Tom Cruise making an even bigger fool of himself than usual, copyrighted material can disappear pretty quickly once the Big G gets a legal letter or two.
Still, if all of that hasn't put you off, you can find more information on building themes here. Me, I'm going to get back to building a new Facebook app to capture all those soon-to-be-disenchanted Scrabulous players.