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Update 2:10 p.m. PDT: I added Google comment about its ad quality requirements.

Google will overhaul its iGoogle interface in June and give people a way to advertise on its personalized home page service, the company said.

The ads will be an option for iGoogle's "canvas view," which lets iGoogle applications expand to fill the whole browser screen, Google said Tuesday on its iGoogle developer blog.

"Those of you with existing applications should add a canvas view to take advantage of more screen real estate. And using canvas view, you can also monetize with ads," said Dan Holevoet of Google's developer programs group, on the blog.

It won't be an ad free-for-all, though.

"Ads will be limited to the canvas view only and certain types of ads will not be allowed. Developers are free to use any ad provider," said iGoogle senior product manager Jessica Ewing in a statement. "To maintain the best user experience, we plan on surveying users to determine how ads impact user satisfaction. Poor user ratings and reviews may impact a gadget's viral features, ranking, and directory listing."

And Google wants to be sure ads aren't inadvertently clicked, a problem in the regular non-canvas view. "We don't allow advertising in the home view (small gadget view) because the gadget real-estate is limited and we've noticed that many clicks in that space are in error," Ewing said.

In April, Google launched a "sandbox" to let developers try the canvas view along with an iGoogle interface change that adds a left-hand navigation pane with a user's list of Web site gadgets.

Later this summer, Holevoet said, Google will add the OpenSocial API to iGoogle. OpenSocial is a cooperative effort including several Google rivals that lets programmers create Web site applications that can run on any OpenSocial-enabled site.

Also coming later this summer are iGoogle updates and notifications, where for example an application can notify a user's friends of some event such as a new high score in a game.

Google on Monday invited programmers into a new sandbox that will let them test out significantly expanded possibilities for Web gadgets, small applications that can be hosted on the company's iGoogle personalized home page.

The sandbox, available at Google's iGoogle developer page, lets developers get started with a number of new features that eventually will make their way to the regular iGoogle home page, said lead product manager Jessica Ewing.

Among those new features are a left-hand region of the Web browser that lets users navigate quickly through a list of gadgets, a "canvas view" that can give gadgets more screen real estate, and the ability to take advantage of some social features for gadgets that employ OpenSocial standards. OpenSocial is an API, or application programming interface, that lets a gadget run on Web sites, such as MySpace.com, Ning, Salesforce.com, and Friendster, that support OpenSocial.

For example, with the features, somebody using a Pac Man game gadget could both expand the game to full-screen size and, when not playing, use OpenSocial's notification abilities to hear when a friend beat the high score, Ewing said.

"It makes the home page environment a lot more interesting and engaging," Ewing said.

Google has Yahoo on the defensive, but Yahoo has a bigger lead with its My Yahoo portal site than Google does with iGoogle. Other home page sites include NetVibes and PageFlakes, which was just acquired by LiveUniverse.

Ewing wouldn't say when the new abilities would be available to regular iGoogle users. "There are no firm dates yet. We're hoping soon," she said.

More details are available on the Google Code Blog and an explanatory YouTube video.

Google's news arrived the day before the Web 2.0 Expo begins. The timing was coincidental, but no doubt Web 2.0 programmers will be interested.