Google has added a little link to the personalized home page that presents the user with themes they can select for their page. Right now there are only a handful of options - beach, bus stop, Google, etc. However, one would hope that Google will allow others to create their own themes. This is the first time I can recall Google departing from it's usual bright colors on a white background. I particularly like the sweet dreams theme. It changes based on your time zone.
The change is more than cosmetic, however. By opening its personalized home page to themes Google can begin to sell marketers on branded layouts, much as My Yahoo has done in the past for brands like Purina. Watch for this to happen real soon. This will give marketers stronger branding than what a widget delivers and the two can work in tandem.
