WebProNews

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.

You're still not at risk of losing yourself in options - I can only view 18 themes at the present time.  Yet Tony Ruscoe, who was among the first to discover the directory, wrote, "I'm currently seeing different themes depending on which server I'm hitting, so the directory is obviously still being made live."

Also, several of the themes are pretty eye-catching, and in what should become a much-appreciated feature, there are approximate user counts, as well as user reviews and comments.  More users need to accumulate before this becomes truly useful, but it'll be a good way of determining what's worth your time.

In related news, people who don't like the current selection (or who just want more, anyway) are being encouraged to create their own themes.  On the Google Code Blog, Jesse Shieh stated, "There are only three steps involved: designing images for the header and footer, entering metadata and color information in an XML file, and submitting the theme.  To find out more about the API, start with the developer guide."