Top Ten iGoogle gadgets: iGoogle.com versus Switzerland (igoogle.ch)

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Retweet This Page: Somehow I am attracted by the wisdom of the crowds. Those crowds are more intelligent than the indivudual in the crowd. So what better way to find out what smart Gadgets should be in your igoogle pages your personalized Google page is than to have a look at the most used gadgets on iGoogle. Well I could not do this without a comparision between igoogle.com and Switzerland (igoogle.ch)

 

 

Number 10: (igoogle.com)
BBC News (1 330 522 users)
Number 10: (Switzerland)
Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ) (17 631)
My comparison comment: Both are serious news sources

Number 9: (igoogle.com)
New York Times (NYT) (1 520 525 users)
Number 9: (Switzerland)
Blick-online News (18 470 users)
My comparison comment: Again at igoogle.com another serious news source. Now here in Switzerland it is the colorful daily news with some bikini pictures in it or so.

Number 8: (igoogle.com)
Wikipedia (1,862,838 users)
Number 8: (Switzerland)
Wikipedia Suche (22’619 users)
My comparison comment: Surprise, surprise for both the same encyclopedia in their local language.

Number 7: (igoogle.com)
Google News (2,297,464 users)
Number 7: (Switzerland)
Date & Time (27’062 users)
My comparison comment: Google news versus showing the date and time. But wait and look at the next numbers.

Number 6: (igoogle.com)
Quotes of the day (2,452,622 users)
Number 6: (Switzerland)
20 Minuten | Front (29’255 users)
My comparison comment: Making a smart quote of the day versus having some broad short general news from this free news magazine that you also get for free on the train stations in Switzerland.

Number 5: (igoogle.com)
Official YouTube Gadget (4,397,481 users)
Number 5: (Switzerland)
Alle Zisch-Sport-News (60’009 users)
My comparison comment: YouTube videos versus Sport news.

Number 4: (igoogle.com)
Movies (4,686,898 users)
Number 4: (Switzerland)
swissinfo – News Frontseite (72’038 users)
My comparison comment: Where to find movies playing near versus news about Switzerland.

Number 3: (igoogle.com)
wikiHow – How to of the day (7,597,367 users)
Number 3: (Switzerland)
news.ch/trends
My comparison comment: How to do things versus what are the latest trends in technology such as eGadgets.

Number 2: (igoogle.com)
CNN.com (7,698,511 users)
Number 2: (Switzerland)
Beobachter 05|08 (77’038 users)
My comparison comment:  The well known CNN news channel versus a consumer advice magazine (something like a how to).

Number 1: (igoogle.com)
Date & Time (9,294,244 users)
Number 1: (Switzerland)
PCtipp-News (84’514 users)
My comparison comment: Date & Time is a must versus PC news.

Overall comment: Date & Time for igoogle.com users is top priority. It seems like users have difficulties in remembering what date it is today. This gadget is a must. Also a existing time displays on computers, telephones and watches are not enough. There needs to be a time display in the iGoogle site as well. The date & time gadget made it also to the 7th place in Switzerland. Can we conclude that time is of a lesser importance in Switzerland. Maybe I should try this one and just pick someone from Switzerland randomly from the telephone book and call him to ask the question what time and date is it. The same should I do for English speaking world, probably I would choose the USA and see who cannot answer me this question. What do you think ?

Another surprising finding is that the PC News are top in Switzerland. It looks like the users of igoogle.ch are dying to get PC News. Before they worry about the world or the economy or anything else, the PC comes first. There must be so much change around PC technologies that they are utter worried they would miss it. Maybe I should try this and just call and ask what is the latest igoogle gadget that was released. Maybe the swiss would win for example over the USA user ?

Anything around Movies and Videos is definetely something special to the igoogle.com users. To know instantly what movie is playing near me is a must. And not to forget to be able to talk about the top videos on YouTube.

Both user communities seem to be into pragmatism. They all want to know how to do things. How to fill in my tax form, how can I save taxes, make more money, find the best schools, fix my house, fix my car, and so and so on. How to is a big thing.

And the national news. What is probable the CNN to the igoogle.com users that is the swissinfo to the Swiss. So here the users know where their focus is. In Switzerland the swiss news just comes after the PC news and the technology news trend. Once they know what is latest in technology, they want to know what their nation is doing.

What other conclusion could you draw out of this top ten list ? Just leave a comment if you like.

Related Posts:
Top Ten iGoogle Gadgets revisited – what the crowd uses 5 month later
My New Work-Life Balance with iGoogle

My New Work-Life Balance With iGoogle – Series 1

igoogle Group

Work: I am looking after the development of a few thousand leaders and employees with a very diversified cultural background stretching over 14 hours time zone.  Life: I have two little kids and my wife is working as a system engineer.

Over the past years I have aquired many new skills and best practices to be more effective. I use speed-reading, speed writing, speed leading and also the process from David Allen – Getting things done – The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and Six Sigma.

And now I am starting to use the latest powers of Web 2.0 to get one more step ahead in designing the ultimate work-life balance.
It was last Sunday when I came about iGoogle. And there it was the ultimate environment to get my whole life and work organized in an instant.
So what has changed since then ?
I have setup two iGoogle accounts – one is for work and the other one for life.

Whenever I am at work I go to my iGoogle work account. There I have a number of gadgets that do some fancy stuff for me. I get the latest leadership quote of the day, the stock price of the company I work for, the latest news through Google Reader about my employer, all the news about Management, Leadership, Talent Management, Employee Development, Career Development and Human Resources and the weather forecast. I have also added Google Bookmarks and the be Twittered Gadget where I see the latest twitter for example from New York Times.
What is the result of this iGoogle for work ? Well, it takes me just 5 minutes and I have the latest update on my company and on my profession.
What other gadgets should I add ? Please leave your suggestions in the comment section below. Thank you.

Twice a day I will log into my iGoogle for Life.  There I can leave a note for my wife or vice versa, see where it is raining or snowing (radar) right now, the receipe of the day or I can search for one, the latest discount offers, another to do list, the snow report of our favourite ski resort, time table search for the public transport, what is on teli tonight, what are the latest movies released, send a free sms, MSN Messenger, News (Menshealth, automotor, etc.), Telephone Book search, Route Search, Translator and search on eBay.
What other gadgets should I add ? Please leave your suggestions in the comment section below. Thank you.

Interesting Blog Posts around Development and Web 2.0

New:

New: The Road To Financial Armageddon Series
Another interesting story about transformation. This time it is about personal cashflow management. How Trent Hamm managed to turn the looming bankruptcy of his family around and turn it into a sustainable financial success. Cashflow Management is key for any successful sustainable endeavour.

1) Web 2.0 in HCM
What it will do for Human Resources HR function ?

2) My prediction for 2008 – groupware is so cool
Why 2008 will be the year of web based groupware ?

3) Personal Learning Environments
What is are personal Learning Environments and what are their benefits ?

4) All about conferencing
What conference tools are around and what are their costs, etc ?

5) Personal Learning Environment for language learning
What does a Personal Learning Environment for language learning looks like ?
Fanatastic, this is just what I was looking for. This shows the state of the art in learning, wow . It also lists a very interesting free collaborative environment for language learning called MyHappyPlanet.

6) Jobs and Careers in Social and Collaborative Learning
What are the future or emerging jobs in careers in social and collaborative learning ?

7) How to become  a professional blogger ?
This is a great post on professional development. I find this a very good description of how someone transitioned over years into professional blogging. A must read in my opinion.

8) The Ten Most Marketable Web Development Skills ?
What are the current marketable technical skills for a web developper ? This post was published in December 2007. For each technical skill the author listed links to relevant learning resources. Excellent!

9)e-Learning Reloaded: Top 50 Web 2.0 Tools for Info Junkies, Researchers & Students
How to collect all your notes, lists, links, etc. online for free ? How to get 1GB free storage space ? How to create free mindmaps and flowcharts collaboratively ? And many more interesting helpers….

10) How Tom Peters is using a wiki to collect real life management stories ?
Another example on how to collect collabaretively knowledge continuously for your
development.
You want to know about the management guru Tom Peters, check out his Blog.

11) 1000 True Fans
What does it take to build a sustainable living online ? Article by Kevin Kelly, founder executive editor of Wired News.
How this would translate into a winning strategy in making a living through teaching online is explored by Brian clark in his article: A 20-Step Process For Finding Your 1,000 True Fans.

12) Doing Business in Second Life (A Virtual World)
How people make a real living in a virtual environment ? These are one of these emerging jobs that did not exist just a couple of years ago.

My favourite Job Search Site in Switzerland

I often recieve the question where I found my current job.
There are plenty of sites for Switzerland but this one really did it for me.
DirectJobs. 
Today 23060 Employers who offer in total 28011 jobs are covered.
You can test the site for 5 days. And you be surprised depending on your profile
and the search term you use how many potential opportunities are there.
There is another search engine similar to directjobs but much more userfriendly: http://www.jobsuchmaschine.ch

4 Times a year Monster.ch and the University of Zurich and Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz publish the jobpilot-index. The jobpilot-index measures the number of offers on the main job-search sites in Switzerland and on 1000 company websites.
The following websites are included:
jobs.ch
jobscout24.ch
jobup.ch
jobwinner.ch
monster.ch
stellen.ch
jobclick.ch
telejob.ch
topjobs.ch

For management jobs a very good search engine is Alpha – The online executive market.