On Thursday, I described the Pageflakes and Netvibes home page services, which I turned to after iGoogle suddenty grew a left pane and put me a click further away from my full-function Gmail in-box, among other questionable enhancements.
I also tried two other iGoogle alternatives: the beta version of the Symbaloo service and Yahoo's Delicious bookmark-sharing site and toolbar. I was hoping to find a way to view my Gmail in-box, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and Google Docs on my home page.
In the end, only iGoogle let me put all four of the elements on my start page. Still, both Symbaloo and Delicious offer lots of ways to get to the Web information you need.
Pack your home page with shortcuts and RSS feeds
Symbaloo looks like a cross between a Twister mat and '60s-vintage pop art. Your home page consists of a grid 10 squares wide and 6 squares tall. The middle 8 squares display the contents of news and weather feeds, your Gmail in-box, and other Web information sources.
Plot your favorite RSS feeds and shortcuts on the grid of the beta Symbaloo service.
(Credit: Symbaloo)Each square of the grid represents an RSS feed or shortcut to a favorite site. You can add entries from the selection offered by Symbaloo or enter the URLs of any RSS feed. You also get a choice of Internet radio stations, specialty search boxes, and other Web applets, though the current selection of widgets is slim. But that's to be expected with a beta test version such as Symbaloo.
Even with the unique view of your favorite Web resources, Symbaloo lets you see the contents of only one widget or feed at a time. I was able to see my Gmail in-box in the Symbaloo window, but the Google Reader and Google Calendar squares are merely shortcuts that open each service in a separate window.
Dig deeper into your bookmarks with Delicious
This service previously used the interesting URL del.icio.us, which I always found difficult to remember (guess I should have bookmarked it). After you sign up at the Delicious site, you can import your existing bookmarks, browse other people's bookmarks, join a bookmark-based social network, or view your bookmarks by their tags.
The Delicious toolbar puts your bookmarks in a row along the top of your browser window. Likewise, the Delicious sidebar opens on the left side to show your bookmark tags in the top window and your bookmarks in the bottom window. You could use your Delicious bookmark page as your home page, but there's nothing dynamic about the list, so all your information remains a click away.
Get several different views of your browser's bookmark via the Delicious social-bookmarking service.
(Credit: Delicious)
Only iGoogle provides a snapshot of your Google services
It's easy to see why Pageflakes, Netvibes, and Delicious have garnered such loyal followings. I'm betting that the new Symbaloo service becomes the home page of choice for many people as well, once its lineup of widgets improves. But I've grown accustomed to opening my browser to a view that includes my Gmail in-box, Google Calendar, Google Reader feeds, and Google Docs file list, all without an additional click (once I've signed in).
In a comment to yesterday's Worker's Edge post, "hdkruger" pointed to a Greasemonkey script that he says removes the left pane that has been added to iGoogle. Perhaps I'll give that script a try, or maybe I'll get used to the list of widgets and tabs that right now just seems to take up valuable screen real estate. But what I'm really hoping for is that Google gives me the option of reverting to the old-style iGoogle page.
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.
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