Why use iGoogle platform

Question

Don't get me wrong, I like iGoogle and use it.

But for intranet site, why anyone would use iGoogle or Apache-Shindig which is foss implementation of iGoogle platform.

OK, boss likes look of iGoogle widgets/gadgets and fact that he can drag them around the page. But you can do this with say ExtJS library.

So are there any benefits of iGoogle platform in case you would use only for yourself and your own gadgets. I see only complicatins and unneccesary stuff if I compere iGoogle(apache-shindig) with extJs, which also provides somekind of draggable widgets.

Best regards

Answer 1

extJs is a javascript library for creating a UI. I assume the iGoogle and Shindig platforms are actual web server based applications (that happen to have a UI similar to what you could built with extJS)

Answer 2

After some googling I think a portlets are what I need.

If I understand corectly portlets are Java specific but you can do same thing in other languages and frameworks.