Google gives gadgets to Australian users

Google’s Australian division has released a set of 12 gadgets that support social networking for users of its iGoogle home page service.

The gadgets, which contain both utilities and games, will allow users to share data and play games through friends listed in Google Contacts lists.

“Your friends are able to see what you share or do in social gadgets through the gadgets themselves, or through a new feed of information called Updates, a way to see what your friends are doing on iGoogle without adding all the gadgets that they have,” Google engineer Jeff Regan said in a blog post.

“Updates can include everything from favourite YouTube videos, to recently shared photo albums, to movie plans for the upcoming weekend…”

The new gadgets include the “Updates” feed, which is similar to those seen on the Facebook home page. Other gadgets include news.com.au, Biggest Brain, YouTube, Photos, Chess, Flood-It!, NY Times Crossword, To Do, Go Comics, Trivia, Timeline, and Tile Game.

Users outside of Australia can use the gadgets, but only Australians can use their social features. Regan also said in his post that the social features are completely optional.