all about the web and it’s interwebz!
*me - do you know anyone with contacts at google?
*person - Pfft, yeah
*me - oh come on, i thought you “Know People”
*person - I do, that was a cocky yeah, not a sarcastic yeah
*me - oh ok haha
*person - pffffffft, fuck yeah I do
* me - there we go
iGoogle vs Netvibes? What are these two? Which one is better? If any of these questions are in your head then this is the right article for you. If you have not already read the first part please go and read Head to Head: iGoogle vs Netvibes Part 1. Just to recap on what has been discussed:
With iGoogle having all those great features you would think there would not be anything left for Netvibes to provide you with … but this is not that case. Netvibes is Heavy in functionality and Heavy on Graphics in a good and lightweight manner. Netvibes has great functionality, fast customization and use while having great style and graphics. The default theme is very pleasing, but there is always room for improvement.
Clicking on the settings link pops up a settings panel, much like if you were using Lightbox, with the following settings; profile, general settings, local content, languages, themes, wallpapers and backup. The themes editor gives you the option to pick from a selection of good looking themes, or if your feeling a little adventurous you can “Create my own theme” which sadly needs some improvement. Currently you are only able to change the color of your theme with a small color swatch box or with a HEX #. Wallpapers settings lets you change the top wallpaper (top header image) and the bottom wallpaper (body background image). The wallpapers settings has a plethora of options to choose from with the ability to choose your wallpaper from Netvibes selection, link (your own image hosted somewhere), search Flickr, Myspace, and Twitter. Plain background color is also available with it being transparent of solid. Text color can be changed along with the height of the header and the wallpaper display mode of tile, center and alignment.
With the explosion of tab browsing thanks to Firefox, why not have tab browsing inside your workspace. Netvibes allows you to add multiple tabs (as many as your screen will allow) also know as workspace. The customization on these tabs are extremely versatile. First off you at a new tab and naming it, then you click on the arrow on the tab to bring a drop down menu with all of the options. The menu shows links (no need to reload the page) to delete tab, rename tab, change number of columns in tab, share this tab, publish this tab in the Netvibes directory, change tab icons (shows a list of about 150 different icons) as well as using an external icon.
Adding the famous widgets to any of your tabs is as easy as click on the widget. The browse content section gives you the option to add a huge select of widgets as well as go to a widget directory with even more widgets. There is a myriad of widgets to choose from like weather, to do list, calendar, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Web Search (includes Google, Yahoo, Ask and others) , Myspace, Facebook, Digg and many (and I mean many) others.
Now that you have read some information about the functionality, look, feel and features of the two big hitters of Ajax loaded home pages you need to try out each one for your self to find out what features and styles work best for your work flow and lifestyle.
Where to start? That could be the question you are are asking your self every time you sit down at your computer for the first time of the day and pop open a browser of your choice (hopefully Firefox). Chances are you start out with what ever web page you have as your homepage. That website, in most cases, is going to be Google maybe even Yahoo. Now that is not a bad place to start if you just want to do some searching but what about those that would like to get a little more out of their home page. There are many good all-in-one web pages available for you to get started with your procrastination of web browsing and of course the ability to get lots of work done on a single web page. Today we are going to take a look at two of the big hitters in this field loaded with tones of Ajax powered features. iGoogle (iG) and Netvibes are both very popular and very use full when it comes to a good starting place on the web with all your favorite services in one window. This article will take a look at both sides as equally as possible though at the end of this article you will most likely choose one over the other but its still your choice, this is just here to help you make that important first step.
Starting with iGoogle, you can point out right away (like most of Google’s online applications) that the application is very heavy in functionality and light in the department of graphics and style. Now that is not always a bad thing when it comes to usability. No one likes an application that has to much graphical nonsense and just gets in the way of the end user. To begin using iGoogle you most likely won’t have to even sign up, as most people already have a Google account (Gmail Account) or more (I have currently have 4-5). A great feature that helps Google in this department is the ability to integrate all of your current Google services without automatically with out the need to log in with your user name and password every time.
With iGoogle having not too good looking default style and graphics, Google has added a neat feature called themes. These themes allow you to change the look of all your tabs and boxes in your workspace along with the header image. The themes (the header image) will change depending on the time / season of at your location.
Here comes a big buzzword in the year 2007 with the big impact of the iPhone in the recent months. Mobility. Everything you can imagine is going straight to your phones. Browsing the internet, checking email, watching videos on YouTube. The ability to use your iGoogle on your mobile phone is as simple as navigating to it on your mobile browser and signing in. There is no special downloads or settings to change. iGoogle is fully accessible from your favorite web browser on your phone.
Ah, here comes another great buzzword in the internet world popularized by Apple. Widgets. Everywhere you look there are widgets coming out for every kind of application or service. With iGoogle you are able to create custom widgets with a “easy-to-use” interface and share them with your friends or the public without worrying about coding with API’s.
So there is a look at iGoogle, next article will talk about all of the features that Netvibes have so stayed tuned and be ready to pick a side.