The latest update to iGoogle's sandbox promised more social capabilities for developers, with the biggest enhancement being the support for Open Social applications in activity streams. This version of iGoogle is now available for limited testing, pushing the social capabilities of the start page even further.
Other big changes occur around communications with friends: Gchat has been added so you can talk with friends and see their updates. Just as with Gmail, this appears in a new left-hand sidebar that's also been added to your iGoogle start page. This new sidebar will also display your unread Gmail messages, so you can consider it your communication hub.
As previously mentioned in our April coverage of the new, more social iGoogle start page, there will also be a canvas format for Google Gadgets, giving developers more physical space to create interactive applications for games and advertising. With all these changes, the most noteworthy aspect of this is the social capabilities that will come about as a result of the improvements that support the developer community.