iGoogle lets you create a personalized homepage that contains a Google search box at the top, and your choice of any number of gadgets below. Gadgets come in lots of different forms and provide access to activities and information from all across the web, without ever having to leave your iGoogle page.
It also includes the ability to chat with your contacts directly from your iGoogle page. This means you can communicate with contacts that use Gmail, orkut or the downloadable Google Talk client while reading headlines from Google News and other top news sources or while checking out movie showtimes. Learn how to invite your friends and start a chat.
Watch a video about chat in iGoogle
Voice and video chat in iGoogle
Not only can you use text chat in iGoogle, but you can now use the voice & video chat plug-in to have an actual conversation with someone (seriously, out loud), or even chat face to face over video. The voice and video plug-in is free and easy to install.
Chat contacts and history in iGoogleYour chat contacts in iGoogle are the same as your chat contacts in Gmail, orkut or a desktop client. Changes to your contacts are synchronized across these services, so if you invite a friend to chat in Gmail and that friend accepts, he or she will automatically appear as a contact in iGoogle.
HistoryIf you're also Gmail user, you can save your chats by adjusting your settings in Gmail, and iGoogle chat will respect this setting. If you aren't using a Gmail username to chat, this feature isn't available.
If you'd prefer to chat only in Gmail, orkut or another client, you can also disable chat in iGoogle.