Themes

What is the iGoogle Themes API and Tools?

iGoogle provides users with a personalized view of the web. You can leverage the themes API and tools to build themes about outer space, cartoons, dogs, or anything you can dream up, helping to further personalize iGoogle. This is your chance to redesign the Google homepage for tens of millions of iGoogle users!

"JR" by Google

iGoogle Themes API

The iGoogle Themes API allows you to personalize iGoogle by modifying the page's design. Your theme can modify the header and footer images, text colors, link colors, gadget frames, and more. Your theme can also update the page's design based on time of day. This makes it easy to create a story that unfolds throughout the day, landscapes that change as the sun rises and sets, and abstract images that become more complex. Creating a dynamic theme is as simple as specifying a time with a theme's visual attributes.

Start creating your theme.

iGoogle Tools

Theme XML template

Download the themes template to help jump start your development. This is especially useful if you are new to XML.

Share themes

Share your favorite theme by sharing a tab. Pick your theme and gadgets on your iGoogle page. Then click the menu button next to the tab's name, and select "Share this tab" to send the tab to a friend. The selected theme will automatically be bundled with the tab and its gadgets!

Examples of themes

Four designers have created their own iGoogle themes, highlighting various features of the API: 

• Yves Behar/fuseproject's Earth-light highlights the dynamic abilities of themes, as a daylight curve moves across a world map.
• John Maeda's Simplicity is Complex consists of large tiles, without having a distinct center image.
• Mark Frauenfelder's Adventures in Lollipopland shows how you can tile your images to fit different screen resolutions.
• Troy Lee's Supermoto Mayhem uses a solid background color instead of tiling.