Google continues to add to the Personalized Homepage in ways that basically turn it into the Ginsu Knife of web portals. They already have a ton of handy widgets and now there's one for Google Checkout too. However, one brand new mini web app from Google that's downright essential is the Google Newsbar Widget.
The Google Newsbar Widget is a must for bloggers and anyone who wants to follow a topic more closely. I have set it up to track topics I blog about like YouTube, Wikipedia, blogs and more. It serves up tons of great links. If you like it you can use this wizard to add the headlines to your site.
Using the Google Newsbar Widget you can tell Google to monitor a bunch of topics. Then it will plant a big horizontal bar at the top of your page. It basically looks like the famous Dow Jones news ticker that's across the street from my office in Times Square. They also have a similar module for video that can be customized in exactly the same way.
