Facebook for Netvibes: Steals pageviews, productivity

Netvibes has a brand-new, first-party widget for Facebook that's been making the rounds today. It came in just after the publication of our Newbie's Guide to Facebook, but it would definitely have made the cut as a useful add-on. The custom module does what several of the third-party Facebook widgets manage, but with a good feeling of snappiness and a nice, clean layout. You can view the latest status messages from your friends, see if you have new messages, pokes, friends requests, or invitations to groups or events. There's also a link to your status, and any birthdays, along with quick links to your profile, and friends pages.

The one thing that's missing, however, is a way to see the news feed, which tells you a fair bit more about what's going on than the widget's small ticker of friends status changes. This is simply something you can't get access to as a third-party service. Also missing is a way to use Facebook communication services, like messaging and pokes; any clicking of the links will just open up a new window directly to Facebook.