I have spent hours upon hours trying to find the “perfect” startpage. I have come to the conclusion that there is none; at least for me. I want a way to include feeds, mail, pictures of Hob and Istar, my Vimeo vids, my calendar, and more. All of the startpages pretty much offer these things, but in different ways.
I, like many others, started with igoogle, which was fun for about 15 minutes. Not too long after I designed my page to my satisfaction, they forced a lot of dead space on users by moving the tabbar to the left. That, and the fact that theming is so very limited meant that I needed an alternative, which led me to Netvibes. Netvibes is one of the best presented options I’ve used, but the lack of true customization leaves me a little unsatisfied (for instance, there is only one theme that does not have glaringly white widget backgrounds and the “extra” customizations, such as tabs, look cheap). Do not let their claim to have 1000s of widgets woo you…most are third party widgets, which always look tacky and include links to the widget’s “home”. Blech.
Pageflakes was my next trial, and I really like the flexibility it offers, but the native design looks very 1995, and not in a good way. It is by far the worst looking option, but has some really great flakes. Shame, really.
While searching for ways to overcome the issues I have with the above-mentioned sites, I found a link to Protopage. This is my preferred page, and I love it up to 95%. The lack of love is for an (apparently) outdated feed reader that can’t even find half the feeds I give the exact address for. I can circumvent this problem by using Feedburner feeds, which seem to work 100% of the time, but it’s still a gripe. Another gripe I had was that my thumbnail images weren’t showing up in my own feeds, but they were in everyone else’s feeds. I solved that problem by not using the “singlepic” function of the Nextgen Gallery plugin. Again, this is a non-issue with other readers, so I’m not sure why Protopage can’t handle them. Since there is no real calendar option beyond the most basic, I’m able to use my ics calendar from Netvibes, and include it as a widget on Protopage by use of the “webpage” widget. Niiiice. Widgets can be free positioned and resized, colored any way you want, and choosing a background is much easier than in other services. There are basic ads at the top of the screen, but you can close them forever (or until you reload) with one click, then they collapse. Not too bad.
The latest, and definitely most fun, option I found this weekend is Schmedley. Since Schmedley is so new, there is very little to choose from, but given a few more “schmidgets” and the option to resize the schmidgets (they are HUGE), this will become my favorite. The Gmail reader is wonky as hell, as it pulls emails from archived and trashed mail and never from my inbox, but the POP Mail seems to work a little better. The retro design of the logo and amazingly cool backgrounds make this a top contender for me. I just hope development continues!
If you try any of these out, let me know what you think!
I couldn’t refrain from commenting. Perfectly written!|
Hi there, yes this article is in fact pleasant and I have learned lot of things from it concerning blogging. thanks.|
I’m gone to say to my little brother, that he should also pay a quick visit this weblog on regular basis to get updated from newest news.|
I don’t know if it’s just me or if perhaps everyone else encountering problems with your website. It seems like some of the written text on your content are running off the screen. Can someone else please provide feedback and let me know if this is happening to them as well? This may be a issue with my web browser because I’ve had this happen previously. Thank you|
Have you ever considered creating an e-book or guest authoring on other blogs? I have a blog centered on the same ideas you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would appreciate your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an e mail.|
magnificent put up, very informative. I’m wondering why the other experts of this sector don’t realize this. You should continue your writing. I am sure, you’ve a great readers’ base already!|
Do you have a spam problem on this site; I also am a blogger, and I was curious about your situation; we have developed some nice methods and we are looking to exchange methods with others, why not shoot me an e-mail if interested.|
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your blog. Do you ever run into any browser compatibility issues? A small number of my blog audience have complained about my website not operating correctly in Explorer but looks great in Safari. Do you have any ideas to help fix this issue?|
I enjoy what you guys tend to be up too. This kind of clever work and exposure! Keep up the great works guys I’ve added you guys to my own blogroll.|
If you are going for best contents like me, simply pay a visit this web page every day because it gives quality contents, thanks|
There’s definately a lot to learn about this issue. I really like all of the points you have made.|
Thank you, I’ve recently been searching for information approximately this topic for ages and yours is the greatest I have found out till now. However, what in regards to the bottom line? Are you certain concerning the supply?|
I every time used to study post in news papers but now as I am a user of net thus from now I am using net for content, thanks to web.|
I don’t even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I don’t know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!|
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.|
I visit daily some sites and sites to read content, however this blog presents feature based content.|
Woah! I’m really digging the template/theme of this site. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s hard to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and visual appeal. I must say you have done a fantastic job with this. Also, the blog loads super fast for me on Opera. Superb Blog!|
Quality posts is the key to invite the users to visit the website, that’s what this web page is providing.|