Taking a page from Google, Netvibes has launched its own labs section that will serve double duty as a place for users to request widgets they want to see, along with a small collection of experimental features that are not yet a part of the main service. These include an organizer that will weed out feeds you don't read, a WYSIWYG theme editor, and a tag cloud generator that reads feed headlines and highlights words that frequently show up.
Of the three new tools, the theme editor is actually a refresh on an existing Netvibes feature. Previously, users could create and edit their own themes, however it required some minor knowledge of XML and Web color codes. The new version simply has drop down menus where you select which elements you want to change and choose from a large selection of colors. If you've used the create-your-own-theme in Gmail, the experience here is similar. As an added bonus you can take whatever theme you've created, and save it locally so other users can apply it to their own pages--something Gmail does not let you do.
The company has also taken a smart direction on the widget feedback and request tool, letting users see what others want from the service, and bundling that with a voting system where people can vote yay or nay on new ideas that get prioritized. Short of using something like Get Satisfaction, this is about as public as a feature request list gets.
The Netvibes labs theme designer lets you make your own themes. Just be careful though, it's easy to make them ugly like this one which I've dubbed 'lemon-lime salmon fever'
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Personalized home page provider, Netvibes announced Monday that users are now able to arrange widgets on their home page in a variety of new ways to improve their page's design, instead of using the current, simple arrangement options. Each widget also features a new view mode, which allows them to decide how each is displayed. Users can choose among a carousel view, ticker display, magazine layout, or a headline view.
The NYTimes.com announced Tuesday that it has started a new marketing campaign to increase the popularity of its site. According to the company, it has added a new page to the site, which features 12 "original, unscripted videos" with celebrities discussing their favorite sections. The celebrities include Kenneth Cole, John Leguizamo, and Ben Stein, among others.
Real estate search engine Roost.com announced Tuesday that it has inked a deal with CoreLogic, a provider of home sale information, to add foreclosed properties to the company's database of listings. It will now feature 1.5 million foreclosed homes from across the U.S.
NextWorth, a company that specializes in online trade-ins of broken or out-dated tech, announced Tuesday that it has signed a deal with both Amazon.com and Circuit City. NextWorth users who trade in their iPhones or iPods to a Circuit City store or NextWorth itself now have the option of receiving a Circuit City gift card or an Amazon gift card for the value of the trade-in.
Search start-up Kosmix announced Tuesday that it has secured $20 million in funding from Time Warner and existing investors Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Dag Ventures. The company's executives said they will use the funding to accelerate growth and customer reach worldwide.
At Monday's Le Web 3 conference in Paris, Netvibes announced the launch of its latest version which adds support for Google's OpenSocial and Facebook Connect, alongside several new ways to view widgetized content.
The OpenSocial element may be one of the most interesting aspects, as it's now paired with Netvibe's Universal Widget API, allowing developers to create widgets that can pull information from a user's social network. In the example demoed at the conference, Netvibes showed off a weather widget which displayed the user's weather, along with that of their friends. The user didn't have to set up that friends list; it simply came over with their credentials from other social networks. The same back end could be used to make a couch-surfing widget where you get friends' listings when looking up flights or hotel reservations in a particular city.
For widgets, this kind of openness is a big deal. Typically widgets are a self-serving piece of Web code that provide a limited container of information. With Netvibes' system, this information can become more targeted and personalized even before you go in to make initial changes.
New look
Besides the OpenSocial integration, the biggest change users are likely to notice is the selection of new layouts which allow tall widgets to be displayed lengthwise. Users have several choices in preset layouts, and each widget is set up to span accordingly. This is mostly helpful for media rich widgets, which can now properly display 16:9 widescreen video content without having to scale it down to fit. It's also really great for landscape photos, and long-form written content.
Speaking of which, there are new ways to read blog content from widgets, including a new canvas view which loads up the page right inside of Netvibes without jumping you somewhere else. You're also able to format incoming RSS stories into what looks like a slideshow gallery and a headline ticker which creates a neat, if slightly useless scrolling marquee of incoming stories.
You can read about all the updates over at the Netvibes blog. Also, below is a video of what the theme switching looks like:
Netvibes : Flexible Layout from Netvibes on Vimeo.
Last week, my iGoogle home page suddenly got a new look via the addition of a pane on the left side containing shortcuts to my widgets. I didn't ask for the new arrangement, and I can't find a way to make the new left pane disappear.
What's worse, when I now click my Gmail in-box, I get an abbreviated version of the application, minus a search box and other useful features. To see the whole enchilada, I have to click the Launch Full Gmail link in the top-right corner of the window. Huh?
The upshot is that the change motivated me to check out my home page alternatives. For the last couple of years, I have used Netvibes as the home page on one of my browsers and iGoogle on the rest. (I rotate between five or six different browsers, just so I don't fall into a rut.) I also took a look at Pageflakes, Symbaloo, and the Delicious social-bookmarking site.
While each of the services offers something unique to Web denizens, I ultimately returned to iGoogle--even with the funky left pane and dumbed-down Gmail module. The difference makers were the ability to see my Google Calendar, (crippled) Gmail in-box, Google Reader feeds, and Google Docs files all in the same window. iGoogle was the only service that manages this trick.
Here's a quick look at the Pageflakes and Netvibes custom-home page services. Tomorrow, I'll cover the beta test version of the new Symbaloo service, Delicious, and the new-look iGoogle.
Pageflakes gets you custom info in a flash
If you don't want to mess around with registration, Pageflakes will serve up information to order in just a few seconds. Just click the big link at the top of the page to open a menu listing about a dozen categories, including news, sports, tech, movies, and gossip.
Choose the categories of information you want to see on your Pageflakes page.
(Credit: Pageflakes)You can add "flakes" of all descriptions to your home page, or create several themed pages that you can jump between by clicking their tabs. If you register with the site, you're prompted to allow the service to search your Web mail contacts to connect with friends and colleagues who also have Pageflakes accounts. I passed on this social aspect of the site.
While I was able to place widgets showing my Gmail in-box and Google Calendar, I struck out trying to do so for Google Docs and Google Reader. Still, you'll find "flakes" of every description at this service. It may not sound like it, but that's a good thing.
Netvibes has the interface edge
In terms of content and features, there really isn't much of a difference between Pageflakes and Netvibes. Two things give Netvibes the edge: a better-looking interface and the lack of "sponsored" widgets.
Netvibes' themes give your custom home page a polished look.
(Credit: Netvibes)You can customize the look and layout of both services, but the Netvibes themes appealed to me more than those available for Pageflakes. (Neither service offers the number and quality of interface options you get with iGoogle, however.) And while you can move Pageflake's ad widget to the bottom of your customized window, you can't delete it entirely.
Tomorrow: a look at Symbaloo, Delicious, and iGoogle.
FriendFeed's new iPhone app is now hand and eye-friendly.
(Credit: FriendFeed)Here are some news tidbits from today that were too small to fill out entire posts. We've grouped together three that are worth your time.
FriendFeed puts out an iPhone app. Social aggregator FriendFeed has launched an iPhone-friendly version of its news feed (http://friendfeed.com/i). Previously users had to use a service like FFtoGo to get the stream of news reformatted to match the resolution on the popular handheld device. The new look incorporates image sharing, using a bit of a work-around with Mail2FF, a service that posts e-mailed photos and messages to your activity stream or private rooms.
Netvibes adds Google search, trend tracking. Netvibes users will find a new Google search box in their start pages. Any search will show up with results that keep the user in the Netvibes environment, and will be saved as a new tab. As TechCrunch noticed, the company also soft launched a new section called Buzz that tracks some of the most favorite links using Netvibes' starring system. Results can be honed down to within the last hour or the last two days.
A Spore with more parts. Too cheap to shell out $10 for the full version of EA's Spore Creature Creator? Computer maker HP is offering a free demo version that has a few more parts than the standard demo offering. Like I said when I checked it out earlier this month, this is one piece of software that's got a fully connected Web 2.0 presence with a community site and YouTube integration.
If you don't have content to populate your site, OneSpot has some for you. The Austin-based start-up joins a host of other companies in the business of delivering contextual links for publishers. OneSpot CEO Matt Cohen makes the claim that OneSpot "democratizes vertical or affinity publishing, helping anyone find, select, and deliver links to the best content on the Web."
OneSpot sifts through more than 200,000 RSS feeds to make content selections. Users provide the system with a set of sample sites, and OneSpot identifies related feeds, looking at link overlaps, Cohen told me. The selected content can be delivered via Web pages, widgets or through e-mail newsletters. For example, OneSpot can supply a retailer with relevant content links for a newsletter to customers.
An optional edit interface allows editors to curate the content, blocking or approving different feeds and pieces of content.
In addition, OneSpot offers its customers Digg-style ratings and discussion pages. Fees are based on the number of topics, page views, or e-mails, Cohen said.
OneSpot currently has less than 20 customers. For example,TheRoot, a Washington Post site for African-Americans, uses OneSpot to fill out the site with a relevant content feed.
TheRoot pulls stories from around 9,000 feeds crawled by OneSpot to surface on its news page. Every story has its own detail page and a permanent URL optimized for search engines.
OneSpot has many competitors that offer some form of contextual content aggregation. They include memetrackers, such Techmeme, Reddit, and Blogrunner; keyword-oriented and linguistic analysis-based services that provide related content such as Sphere, Inform, and Smartbrief; and feed aggregators such as NewsGator and Netvibes.
Cohen believes that the link structure approach, similar to what Google does for search, to selecting sources and content provides the best results. But the choice of content aggregation service will depend on what a publisher wants to accomplish. Other services could be better at finding timely content related to a particular article, rather than for a topic area. OneSpot is currently angel funded, and plans to raise an A series round this summer, Cohen said.
Netvibes, a company offering services for creating personalized home pages and a platform for widgets, announced on Thursday that founder and Chief Executive Tariq Krim is stepping aside.
Although Chief Operating Officer Freddy Mini will be taking his place as CEO, Krim will remain on the Paris-headquartered company's board of directors. No concrete reason for his departure was provided.
In a release Thursday, Mini called Krim "a true visionary" and touted the fact that nearly 1,000 clients are using the Netvibes widget platform, which went open-source last month. Mini, a former employee of CNET News.com parent company CNET Networks, has been Netvibes' COO since 2006, working on expanding the company's U.S. operations.
Moving forward, Netvibes will likely continue to focus on its widget platform, which has a much sunnier outlook than the personalized home page service. Sites in that niche have had a tough time in the face of competition from Google's iGoogle and Yahoo's My Yahoo, not to mention the fact that personalized home pages just aren't as chic as they were in 2002.
Smaller rival Pageflakes was acquired last month by LiveUniverse, after rumors floated that it needed to find a buyer.
Netvibes, a developer of customizable start pages, plans to make its widget platform, application programming interfaces, and iPhone version open source, according to CEO Tariq Krim.
"We want to compete with Google widgets," Krim said. "Our container supports Google widgets and every other platform. If we release our code, people will leverage it and grow the reach of our platform."
Krim hopes that supporting a broad range of platforms, including Windows Vista and Windows Live, Mac OS X, Opera, Yahoo, and Google, will inspire the developer community to adopt and innovate on the Netvibes platform.
Netvibes will make money with sponsored widgets, Netvibe Universes, and business services. Opening up the code to developers will enable them to compete on more equal footing with Netvibes as well.
The latest version of customizable start page Netvibes, nicknamed "Ginger" will be open to everyone as of Tuesday morning. We gave it a thorough look back in late January, and Rafe and I have been using it on a daily basis to keep up with various feeds and use it as a Widget engine.
If you're a current Netvibes user using the "Coriander" release, the tool has gone noticeably more social, adding options to follow your friend's reading activity and recommend news items without having to use other bookmarking or sharing services. It'll also pull in your friends from other networks like Facebook and Twitter.
The mystery Web drive isn't ready yet.
One of the features that wasn't ready for prime time throughout the private beta (and still isn't) is a Web storage drive. It's been sitting up in the tool bar for the last month or so as unavailable--which is one of the first things I notice while using any service.
Unfortunately, Netvibes isn't making any announcements until a partnership with a Web storage company is finalized, but my educated guess is that it's going to be Box.net, which has a fairly broad scope of partnerships with popular Web services including Picnik, Scribd, and Zoho. The storage provider is currently featured as an "essential" widget in Ginger's widget directory.
Like Rafe wrote when he first checked out Ginger, some of these social updates are "unnecessary," in that it's primarily been a single serving tool for people to organize information for themselves. I'm interested to see how Web storage is worked in, so stay tuned on that. In the meantime, check out our chat with competitor Pageflakes' CEO Dan Cohen on last week's episode of Working Webware, who talks about the metagator space, as well as what it takes to stick out in this crowded market.
PageOnce is a very new take on an old idea. Take your standard widget-based feed reader such as Pageflakes or Netvibes and replace its blog and RSS feed widgets with financial tracking tools to let you keep an eye on bank accounts, credit card transactions, and various bills. It promises to offer you all the things you love about accessing your private personal information, while presenting it like you're scoping out your favorite feeds about gadgets and odd news.
One of PageOnce's best features is that it's very fast, and makes it easy to get going. There's a directory of pre-existing services to choose from, and if you come across one that's not listed you can send in a request for it to be added. I very easily found my bank, phone provider, and various credit card accounts. It also let me add things such as my Facebook news feed, Netflix queue, and mileage number from my airline--something I don't really need to check on a daily basis, but why not add it, right?
Besides the usual social stuff and e-mail accounts, you can also keep an eye on financial data from various bank accounts, credit cards, and billing services (not pictured).
(Credit: CNET Networks)Like the service's namesake would suggest, all this action takes place on one page, but you can also cycle through the six major categories (finance, shopping, e-mail, etc.) as you would using self-created tabs on other customizable start pages. The added benefit of going to each of these specialized pages is that the widgets are larger and contain their entire set of data instead of just a brief overview. This was especially useful for my cellular phone bill, which offered up a forecast of how many minutes I was on track to using by the end of the billing cycle, something my carrier doesn't even offer on its billing pages. On the other hand, you can't reorder what's on any of the pages, which is incredibly useful, and will hopefully be added in later versions.
My one reservation with using services like this, and others that deal with financial data (see Mint and Wesabe) are that they just freak me out. There's just something about giving a third party service so much of my personal financial information, that it doesn't matter how secure it is, or how much the data is anonymized on the way there. That said, PageOnce uses a variety of bank-level security measures to keep your data safe including high-level encryption, SSL, firewalls, and vulnerability tests from third party security consulting agencies.
The service is currently in private beta, although we've got 500 invites that have been made available to Webware readers. You can get yours by going here.
[Thanks to Webware reader Kyle for the tip] ... Read more
