Netvibes: My New Home Page
Google has some competition in the customized home page field. And the new winner for the love and affection of my start page is: Netvibes!
I’d been using the customized iGoogle as my home page for the last year and a half. It gave me immediate access to my inbox, weather forecasts, and whatever RSS feed I thought was important enough to throw on the front page. And I was satisfied. I never really used it all that much though, still using NetNewsWire as my primary feed reader. This is when Netvibes stepped in.
The first thing I noticed was the look of Netvibes. It has 14 different themes pre-made themes and a customizable color choices. In addition, you can change the background with 18 of their own images, or choose your own from flickr accounts, Myspace.com, Twitter, or any image url. You can really make it your own, something that iGoogle didn’t provide too well with their small selection of themes to choose from. The presentation of feeds and modules on the front page can be tailored to take up as much or as little space as you want, their color, and amount of information shown up front.
My Movie Tab
Netvibes also has more functionality than iGoogle. When browsing RSS feeds, like most other readers, you can open the websites in the page window. But this is all in one place. It’s also a launching point for web searches, let’s me directly edit my Facebook profile or see if there are any immediate updates, and keep track of Twitter!
So far, I’m loving my experience with Netvibes. While I liked iGoogle, Netvibes offers so much more and in a sleeker presentation. But it does more for me than just showing me my feeds in a pretty UI. I have a hard time keeping up to date on a lot of smaller apps. Twitter being my primary example.
Launch Web Site in Window
I used Twitterific for a while, but I found myself updating my status only a couple times a week - whenever I actually remembered to. Twitter is right next to my RSS feeds now, so I don’t even have to remember to actively check it because I just see it. I don’t have to remember to check my feeds on NetNewsWire anymore. Every time I open Safari, I see it then. I spend a majority of time in Safari, so having a single portal to get to all my needs, and one done as well as Netvibes, keeps me productive and on top sites I have a tendency to forget about.
I missed my chance at the private beta for Ginger, the next version of Netvibes. But it will be released to members mid-February, so I guess I won’t have to wait too long. I’m looking forward to anything these guys do from now on. Have you given Netvibes a shot?
Related sites
Recent features
The Format - Give It Up
Coheed and Cambria - The Velorium Camper II: Backend Of Forever
Leah Andreone - Break Your Fall
Song of the week
Sara Bareilles - Between the Lines
Sara Bareilles' "Between the Lines" is the Song of the Week for April 20 to 26.
Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119
Warning: main(images/faq.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119
Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'images/faq.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/.eastwood/cdevroe/theubergeeks.net/wp-content/themes/clockworkorange/sidebar.php on line 119
I just recently signed up to Netvibes, after I heard you were using it. I have yet to really take the time to dive in and get myself setup - but I like what I see overall. I also like that they have a Developer area where people can build things to add onto their system…. something that I find pretty important.
Great review!
Colin Devroe on January 29th, 2008 10:15 am
I’ve completely dropped NetNewsWire, Twitterific, and even reading most newspapers because of Netvibes. I can access it from any computer, it’s all presented in one place, and it’s easy to use. I can take a quick look at a few news stories for a minute, or I can sit for hours reading over ALL the news articles. Really liking it so far, can’t wait for Ginger.
Sameer Barkawi on January 31st, 2008 11:50 am