Google is ready to start letting users customize its famously spartan home page with photos of their own

Google.com gets a bit more customizable
The company announced Wednesday afternoon that over the next few days, U.S. visitors to Google.com will be able to drag photos from their computer or a Picasa library onto the home page, giving it a unique background. Users outside the U.S. will get the feature a little bit later as Google gradually rolls it out around the world, said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience and the keeper of the Google Look, in a blog post.

Google's approach to its home page has always been minimalistic: it even removed all extraneous links from Google.com last year until the user moved their mouse, based on the belief that those quickly searching for info didn't need distractions. It has allowed users to set up customized iGoogle pages, but has otherwise left the basic Google.com page alone other than the usual holiday doodles or occasional promotions for things like Chrome or the Nexus One.

This is a major shift in the company's design philosophy, and one that shows it's paying attention to the competition. Microsoft's revamped Bing search engine is a year old, and since the redesign went live has featured a striking photo linked to various search terms as the background for its home page. That's not a custom picture, of course, but it's an eye-pleasing addition to the page and one that Google was sure to have noticed.

EXTRA........
Microsoft responds to Google's Windows moves..
Google has started easing Windows PCs out of its internal network based on security concerns, related in part to the attacks on its infrastructure late last year. Google has so far declined to confirm that report, but Microsoft released a blog post Tuesday afternoon defending Windows security and pointing out that security concerns helped derail a Gmail deployment at Yale University.

"When it comes to security, even hackers admit we're doing a better job making our products more secure than anyone else. And it's not just the hackers; third party influentials [sic] and industry leaders like Cisco tell us regularly that our focus and investment continues to surpass others," Microsoft said in its blog post.