Google unveiled a new service on Thursday that lets users combine some of the company's internet offerings into a single package, a move that takes it closer to the portal model used by rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN. The new personalised Google homepage, which allows users to select elements they want to add to the pagesite, also represents the first alternative Google offers to its distinctive clutter-free search engine. Under a project labelled "Fusion", the company said the personalised homepage was part of a series of moves it was planning to bring its fast-growing range of services closer together. Until now, Google has offered each of its web services, from its news service to Gmail, on a standalone basis, rather than as part of an integrated package of services for internet users. The option to personalise web pages has already become a big draw for some other internet companies. According to comScore Networks, which measures web traffic, a quarter of the visitors to Yahoo! also visit My Yahoo!, the company's personalised service. Explaining the decision to offer an alternative to the familiar stripped-down Google web site, Marissa Mayer, director of consumer products, said that Google now offered enough "push" services of its own, which deliver information automatically to users, to make it worth aggregrating the information in a single place. Users of the new homepage, available in test form, can add boxes containing things like the latest news headlines from Google News, the latest messages received in their Gmail accounts and information supplied by Google's weather service. Google said the new service would eventually incorporate web content and services provided by other companies. Like My Yahoo!, the company said it planned to let users select "feeds" of information from other websites to display on the homepage. It also hoped to offer internet email services by other companies, though technical issues still needed to be resolved, Ms Mayer added. John Battelle, a University of California professor and author of The Search, a forthcoming book on the industry, says Google's move renders moot its previous statements about not playing in the same game as Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft. "This is tying together all their services into one, integrated interface and gives Google a platform to think strategically for the future," Battelle said. Yahoo, the Internet's most visited Web site, attracted 98.7 million users in March, according to Internet measurement service Nielsen/NetRatings. Google was No. 4, with 75.1 million users. Yahoo's MyYahoo attracted 21 million users in March, Nielsen says. Google executives spent much time Thursday talking about its mission of organizing the world's information. CEO Eric Schmidt said he looks at it as a "300-year" problem and said Google has much work to do. Google believes one big growth area is working on translating languages for Web sites. Executives showed examples of how Google is tackling that. Google Vice President Alan Eustace noted that when Google can serve all 198 languages represented in the United Nations, "It really will usher in an era when everyone will have access to all the world's information." Google showed off new 3-D mapping technology for "Google Earth," a site coming next month. It offers aerial satellite views of anywhere on the planet, similar to Google's current map product, but more detailed. "You can travel anywhere in the world now, for free," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, in demonstrating the product. "I've never been to the Grand Canyon. But now I don't have to." The news items taken from Financial Times and USA Today. Madhuresh Singhal Aurigene Discovery Technologies Limited, Electronic City, phase II, Hosur Road, Bangalore 560100 Phone 28521314-16 Ext.- 212 Mobile 98861 82822 E-mail: madhureshsinghal@yahoo.com http://nettalk2.tripod.com/