Recently Google has added a number of new features in their iGoogle. Now Google is inviting internet users to take a tour of iGoogle new features. Google has added “Canvas View” to their iGoogle gadgets that offer users to full screen and the navigation bar is shifted from top to left Let’s have a closer look into iGoogle new features.

"Canvas view" Gadgets

Canvas view gadget help iGoogle users to view GMail Messages, watch video, play games and do a more a lot of things with their favorite websites in full screen view. Users can expand any gadget to full-screen view ("canvas view") by clicking its "maximize" button or the gadget name in the left-navigation bar.

Full Feed Reading

iGoogle users can now read full RSS feeds in canvas view. including rich content like inline videos and photos. If you use Google Reader, you can also keep track of what you’ve read and star your favorite feeds.

Improved Google gadgets

The Google Reader gadget’s full-screen "canvas view" lets you browse, share and highlight your feeds, manage folders and subscriptions and use keyboard shortcuts. The Gmail gadget lets you forward and reply to messages and compose new ones. The YouTube gadget lets you watch, browse and search YouTube videos, and even see related videos, all in full screen. And you can do all of this from within your iGoogle page.

Left navigation

Google has introduced the left navigation bar to their Google Gadgets . Under each tab, all your gadgets on that tab will be listed. With the left navigation, you can click on the name of any gadget and it will take you to the canvas view page of that gadget with one click. You can always return to the home view of your tab with all the gadgets by clicking on the name of the tab in the left navigation or the minimize button on the gadget.

Source : Learn more about iGoogle’s new features

Google has added a lot new features to iGoogle. Google has added Games, News, Entertainment and Google stuff to iGoogle. Google has also replaced the tabs at the top with a left navigation that allows for access to any gadget with one click. A lot changes and improvements are also added for developers. Let’s have a close look what Google has added for us in iGoogle .

• News : New gadgets from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post give me full-page views of what’s new in the world. Nice.
• Games : The Sudoku gadget lets me play thousands of full-page Sudoku puzzles without squinting at 6-point type. The GoComics gadget gives me my fix of Garfield and Doonesbury and lets me choose from all of their other comics. I’ve also spent many coffee breaks browsing through videos from YouTube and CurrentTV.
• Entertainment : I’ve configured the TV Guide gadget to my zip code and just used it today to figure out when the newest episode of The Office is playing. Flixster’s movies gadget lets me access trailers, ratings, and theater information for any movie. I also use the iLike gadget to browse news, concerts, and free MP3s from my favorite musicians.
• Google stuff : The new Gmail gadget lets me read my full email and perform simple actions like send or reply to emails without leaving iGoogle. Last but not least, a gadget that I authored and use every day is for Google Finance, which provides full-screen finance charts and news of the stocks in my portfolio.

Google also has made iGoogle a better platform for developers. Google has added canvas view feature in iGoogle that will help developers to add rich media content into their iGoogle gadgets, most importantly developers can easily monetize their gadgets. If you are a developer then check out the Google’s how to build canvas view guide. Google is also working hard to graduate more functionality out of the sandbox and into production, such as OpenSocial.

Here’s a full list of Google’s highlighted canvas view gadgets.

Source : iGoogle Developer Blog and The Official Google Blog