It's funny, I had seen that as well... and yet, convinced myself it was not new. As far as customization, outside of iGoogle, Google hasn't been all that interested in user-generated modifications.

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I'd like to be able to customize the links. Now it has some services that I don't often use and doesn't have the services that I use a lot everyday.

@mustafa: I still see the Invite in Gmail.

I think an alphabetical list would be easier to use.

Not sure about the "search vs non-search" distinction, as Calendar lets you search for public events (and Photos finds photos from Picasa -- arguably, that's only a single service it searches, but Google Calendar is more of a general event search).

What's interesting is that the menu options differ country by country. The .com versions gets the most option, followed by the .uk version, while the French and Italians get considerably smaller selections. (Detailed at http://tinyurl.com/27og2x )

try this: open firefox start page in opera. the gmail link is not shown!

I would like to customize it - once I leave google/ig, there is no way to go back (except the back button - crazy thing).

A customized search menu would be nice. I mean, I can't say that I've used "Shopping," "Maps" (I use Google Earth), "Gmail" (I have Gmail as a search in IE7) and would love to remove them.

Great blog! :-)

Even more interesting is that these menus are not standard across their offerings. Reader offers a different drop down menu than Gmail for instance.

The update disappeared here in Germany

@Justin: Make sure your using the new version.

Disapeared here too :S

My biggest gripe with the navigation is that some links open in new tabs and others don't. I really don't care either way but it's maddening when you don't know what to expect. I click gmail and I get a new window. I click reader and I don't. ARRGGGHHH!