Google has launched a new feature called iGoogle Celebs, which lets you save and share your favorite celebrity’s own iGoogle homepage. Now you can see Demi Moore’s favorite iGoogle widgets, and have access to all sorts of related content. It’s very similar to what Pageflakes and other start pages tried their hands at over two years ago, seeking celebrity “endorsement” in order to encourage users to latch onto these services.
I’m not sure why Google has decided now to take this particular approach to growing its iGoogle appeal, but the past few months have proven interesting for Google in terms of its delve into mainstream marketing methods. But my next question would have to be, why create these pages at all? Do people really care?
I can see some usefulness to iGoogle Celebs. There are enough fans out there that would want to see the personalized start pages of their favorite celebrities. It could be a useful way to connect fans and celebrities on the social web, and it’s an easy way for fans to stay updated to celebrity content, whether its a local concert or a gossip tidbit.
Beyond this, celeb start pages are good ways to disseminate information across the social web. It’s a marketing tool. Meebo has a similar approach to to connecting fans and celebrities through the direct spreading of information. To a certain extent the celeb iGoogle start pages could serve as a point of information exchange between fans and celebs.
But aside from the “cool factor” that celeb iGoogle pages could provide, the true benefit of these custom pages is an opportunity for advertising, direct and otherwise. Finding a way to leverage these personalized pages which are highly associated with mainstream entertainment content, could prove useful for various kinds of user-engaged marketing. Combined with Google’s continued efforts to offer personalization features specific to its search applications, custom iGoogle pages could become more valuable.