Google announced a collection of new iGoogle themes from well-known artists today. Among them are: Radiohead, Gnarls Barkley, Gucci, Burberry, Vera Wang, Bob Dylan, Celine Dion, Natalie Cole, and more.

An interesting mix to say the least. Google explains:

If you haven’t tried iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage, you’re not alone. But Google’s looking to spiff up their customizable homepages and testing has already begun, as Google Operating System reports—and it looks like they’re trying to make our foretelling of iGoogle as social network come true.

Google in the US is currently promoting a new “artist themes” section for iGoogle via a special logo and text below the search box.

In a recent post that was about 125 words long, a Googler included the term "social" four times.  Keep Facebook, MySpace, and whatever else you like in mind, then, while learning about a new developer sandbox for iGoogle.

Most posts on Google’s official blogs tend to either go unnoticed or be well-received.  A recent one announcing the release of Webmaster Tools Gadgets for iGoogle wasn’t so lucky.

Remember how, in the early days of consumer computers, so much attention was paid to backgrounds and screensavers?  iGoogle might have followed this trend, except that it’s often hard to come across different themes.  So now Google has gone and created an iGoogle themes directory.