[By Sudarshana Banerjee]

Come November next year, and you will no longer have iGoogle, a bunch of personalized gadgets available from your customized Google Search page. The mobile version will be retired on July 31, 2012. You could get on the Google Play store and get some games, widgets, and news readers, if your phone runs Android, for a faux iGoogle feel. Google also hopes you will be personalizing Chrome with a theme, so basically, you have to use Chrome every time to get to your favorite things; Firefox or any other browser will no longer cut it. Talking of Chrome, have you checked out the Google Chrome Canary?

With modern apps that run on platforms like Chrome and Android, the need for something like iGoogle has eroded over time

All of your personal data stored in other Google products will continue to be available via those products, including Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Finance, Google Docs (now Google Drive), Google Bookmarks, and Google Tasks. Other gadgets, like the to-do list, allow you to export your data – look for the “Download all” option under the drop-down menu tied to the title of your list. Most iGoogle gadgets are created and maintained by third-party developers. Chances are, they will offer you an option to import your information in the next 16 months before iGoogle goes defunct; you could also try getting in touch with them earlier.

IGoogle was launched in 2005 before the Web and mobile apps started conquering the world, and a lot of us did not have smartphones. (A life without smartphones and tablet devices! How did we survive?)