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The iGoogle gadget directory has been completely redesigned.

Gadgets are now shown in more of a search result style, along with snippets and such, as opposed to the former plain thumbnails grid*. This also gives more room to instantly show the author information, which is linked to a revamped author page.

Author pages are now bundling all gadgets identified by one email address, as provided in the module XML author info. If you have different gadget categories, you might be able to separate them via email addresses like john.doe+triviagadgets@gmail.com, john.doe+newsgadgets@gmail.com and so on (the plus operator is supported by Gmail and will still send all messages to the same account, where you can then handle them using Gmail’s filter options).

The search functionality is also still available, and you can mix and match sorting (hottest, most users, or newest) with categories (like all, news, tools, lifestyle). Adding a gadget has become easier than before, because when you click the “Add it now” button there will be no additional security warning to approve anymore... the gadget will be instantly added.

The only thing that seems to be missing on the new homepage is the quite crucial former “Add by URL” link to add a gadget of which you know the URL, but which isn’t yet indexed in the directory (though you can still use the official developer gadget to add by URL; and if the URL is indexed with the iGoogle directory, you can also retrieve the module by searching for the URL).

*A bit more like our old Google Modules.com actually.

[Thanks CHW!]

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