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Liking NetVibes
Robert Scoble says he's gobbling up new RSS feeds thanks to the new Google Reader. But I've grown tired of reading RSS feeds through an RSS reader. (And I've been writing about this stuff for years.)
My new info-gathering toy? NetVibes. It's a personalized start page that lets you add as many of your favorite sites (via their RSS feed) as you'd like. MyYahoo has 60 million users, but Netvibes -- launched in early 2006 by Paris-based Tariq Krim -- expects to have 15 million users by year's end. Wow.
With Netvibes, users can quickly change the look of their start page, select content, add RSS feeds, and custom-build features from other Netvibes users. Any email feed can be put on Netvibes. I'm liking it.
I'm also still playing with Megite. They created a page for me showing a few dozen of the feeds I subscribe to (after exporting my OPML file from Bloglines). They also have a "River of News" feed -- based on a post a few months ago by Dave Winer, I'm guessing -- that's pretty nice.
Last week I tried to set up a Google start page, but I was surprised and disappointed that Google doesn't let you couldn't figure out how to add your own RSS feeds to it. They also let you add media partners' content. (How geeky is this page talking about Subscribed Links feeds?)
December 1, 2006 at 11:15 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
I very much like NetVibes. I've been using it for eight or nine months now ... have a couple of hundreed RSS feeds ... tabs make them easy to organizae. I've also customized it with weather, stocks, my own photo, etc.
Posted by: Howard Owens at Dec 2, 2006 12:08:17 AM
That's not true about Google home pages not allowing you to add your own feeds, I have quite a few on mine. They made it a little more obscure, but it is available.
1) Click the "Add Stuff" link
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?root=/ig
2) At the top, next to the "search Homepage content", click the small link "add by URL" which opens a field you can enter a feed URL.
It's been a while since I used NetVibes, which I agree was slick. Google's home page allows me to create tabs with different collections of feeds and widgets.
But neither, to me are efficient to scan the hundred or so feeds I have. Just starter with Google Reader, but it is fast, and the keyboard shortcuts make it a snap to move through a lot of content. And the ability to share content publicly via their "add clip" and a direct link is something you dont get elsewhere--
http://cogdogblog.com/2006/12/01/google-reader-im-in-love/
Posted by: Alan at Dec 2, 2006 8:30:12 AM
I use bloglines. The reason I *love* it is the clipping's folder option. Although del.icio.us enables me to do something similar, I like bloglines clippings. i didn't see anything like that with netvibes or other rss readers. Did I overlook that feature?
Posted by: zach braiker at Dec 2, 2006 9:15:54 AM
Thanks, Alan!
Wow, whoever designed the Google start page needs to go back to remedial UI 101. I'll spend more time with Google Reader, too.
Posted by: JD at Dec 2, 2006 12:29:51 PM
I've gotta say - NetVibes looks pretty impressive, but with a hundred feeds already on my google/ig, and with no way of importing them into NetVibes except MANUALLY, it would be a massive undertaking.
Posted by: Andrew Venegas at Dec 2, 2006 3:45:06 PM
What about ProtopageV3? I think it's the best thing for RSS currently out there, and the only-but-only one that shares in the way that it does with tabs galore!
Posted by: Coleman at Dec 3, 2006 5:51:32 AM
Andrew Venegas > There is a solution for importing all your feeds into Netvibes.
In Google IG there is no Opml export but you can add one with this module:
http://www.google.com/ig/add?moduleurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpersistent.info%2Fmodules%2Fopml-export.xml
With this module you can export all your feeds into an Opml file and them import all of them into Netvibes with this file.
You can now enjoying Netvibes ;)
Posted by: François at Dec 10, 2006 5:02:28 AM
I'm very fond of Bloglines, and I can read it very conveniently on my mobile phone too.
I have a few feeds on my Google home page, but it does not seem like it would be convenient to add a lot there. You can really pile them up in Bloglines because of the folder structure.
A few people have been pushing me toward Google Reader. It looks very similar to Bloglines from what I have seen so far.
Posted by: Mindy McAdams at Dec 10, 2006 11:21:10 AM
