Roundup: single page aggregators
We take a look at some popular single page content aggregators.
Single page aggregators, also known as personalized home pages, can be a helpful way to keep tabs on your favorite Web content without having to visit each site. With nearly all of them able to display content from popular Web sites, choosing one comes down personal taste. We've run down some of the most popular aggregators, citing what works and what doesn't.
My.Netscape relaunched today, providing users with an Ajax-driven drag-and-drop interface to add and customize newsfeeds. There are about a hundred premade feeds to choose from. If you want to add a site that's not on there, you can plug in the site's RSS feed. See also Google Personalized Home Page and My Yahoo, which offer nearly identical functionality.
What works: No ads, quick loading content modules, simple to use.
What doesn't: A limited selection of add-ons, lack of visual customization.
YourMinis is a page aggregator that feels a little bit like Mac OS X's Dashboard with tons of customizable widgets that are both beautiful and useful. YourMinis lets you create several different pages full of content, which can be navigated using tabs or by viewing each page in a live thumbnail preview. You can also share your customized page with other people, who can then rank and comment on it. Previous coverage here.
What works: Gorgeous design, easy to use, tons of widgets to choose from.
What doesn't: The pretty widgets can't be popped out on the desktop.
Netvibes is the most popular single page aggregator. With its popularity comes easy availability of modules for any site you're likely to be looking for. Like YourMinis, the look of your Netvibes page can be fully customized, even down to how wide you want each column of modules to be.
What works: A large catalog of sites to choose from, simple and slick design.
What doesn't: Sometimes slow to load.
Pageflakes provides similar functionality to Netvibes and YourMinis, but places more emphasis on community-created pages. These are pages with preset modules that can be added as new tabs on your Pageflakes interface. They provide similar utility to what you would get using meta-aggregator sites like Original Signal and Popurls. Watch our interview with Pageflakes CEO Dan Cohen here.
What works: Fast-loading and dead simple to use.
What doesn't: Some of the community content could be sorted better. Foreign language items are mixed, and there's not a way to browse by genre, which can lead to confusion.