Slashdot Mirror

Since I started using the internet Google was my home page, then I started using iGoogle (I came to this article from an RSS feed on iGoogle). When its shut I will be switching to http://www.netvibes.com/ .

One thing that does make Google stand out is the fact that they make it really easy for you to download your data and I was able to get all my feeds into netvibes with just a couple of clicks.

There are all sorts of iGoogle replacements. Just to name a few...

NetVibes
U-Start
Proto-Page

I use a text-based browser too for similar reasons. I found that NetVibes has a special page: http://wap.netvibes.com/ that seems to work for me. I just signed up today so I can't tell yet if it's good enough to replace Google Reader.

With everything being in the cloud, what if the cloud is gone someday. The google reader is just an example here. If google reader is just a desktop app, we can happily conitnue to use it even it is abandoned. But if it is in the cloud, we are screwed.

If "the cloud" (the whole of it) is gone someday, there also won't be any RSS/ATOM feeds left for you to use your desktop app with.

My point is, "the cloud" being gone isn't very probable - some services like Google Reader may disappear, but if they are popular, others will immediately spot the opportunity to take their place (like presently feedly.com, netvibes.com or newsblur.com), possibly even improving upon these on their way out.

Oh, calm down. All this means is that you have to export your stuff, and import into a different, nearly identical service.

What do you want them to do, anyway? Swear a blood-oath that once they start up a service, they will continue with it forever?

If they don't think it makes sense to commit the resources to maintain it, then it's certainly not going to make sense to maintain a paid version - not everything is about revenue.

You act like this is some kind of galling defect in Google's collective moral fibre - some things don't stick, it happens.

I used to use Google Reader but switched to Netvibes long ago. Provides the same features, similiar interface, but a lot more under the hood and better theme selection/customization imo. Plus, it's not Google, which is a big plus for me. Anything non-MS, non-Apple, non-Oracle, non-Google is a huge win in my book. Just my two cents, since you asked for recommendations.

Netvibes set to reader view appears to look pretty similar from what I can see, but all the RSS reader sites I try seem to be down at the moment. Anyone have experience using it?

Netvibes is a good alternative that has a "Reader" mode plus a widget mode. However one thing I noticed with both Google Reader and especially Netvibes is it can choke and become sluggish with several thousand unread items in my browser.

As far as native clients go in Linuxland, Liferea is a maturing and blazingly fast GTK client that suits my needs.

I am checking out Netvibes as a replacement.

http://www.netvibes.com/ seems to be the alternative that most people are suggesting.

I have been using netvibes for longer than iGoogle existed. I think it is superior to iGoogle.

Exactly, here's an example you can browse. A bunch of feeds on a bunch of stuff all categorized for easy viewing: http://www.netvibes.com/rident

How about Netvibes? I've used and enjoyed them for quite a while. In fact I'm making this post from there right now. http://www.netvibes.com/

Integrating multiple information sources is crucial to solving information overload. Blogs and other anthology-sites integrate information from many sources. But we won't be able to solve the overload problem until each Internet user can choose for himself what sources to integrate, and can add to this mix the most important source of all: his own personal information — his email and other messages, reminders and documents of all sorts. To accomplish this, we merely need to turn the whole Cybersphere on its side...

Or you just need http://www.netvibes.com/

Sounds to me like you might be interested in Netvibes' Universal Widget API. It allows you to write widgets that will work on NetVibes (of course), Mac, Windows Vista, Windows Live, iGoogle, iPhone/IPod Touch, Opera, and Yahoo Widgets (not the same as My Yahoo). I just found out about it today, so I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I will be trying it soon.

Here here. I also agree. It got me thinking though, and perhaps this is a topic for an "Ask Slashdot" (or perhaps it's even been covered before), but what sources to most Slashdotters use for news? Are there particular RSS feeds, or news sites that a lot of us like more/less than others? If so, what do we all like/dislike about each?

Personally, I like a broad range of information sources (including various political leanings) as there's never going to be any source that is completely without bias of any kind, so I'd rather sample many sources, and sift what seem to be the common principles. I'm always interested in new perspectives, and wondered if anyone had any particular recommendations. I'll start off by recommending Netvibes as an aggregator that I love. I like that I can sign in from any computer and have my personalized feeds/pages in the same format whenever I want, and that I can add whatever feeds I like.

Use netvibes instead. You can export all your feeds/tabs as an OPML file, and re-import it into netvibes or another feed reader if you want.

Doesn't anyone else think this is way similar to netvibes

Netvibes' new Cinnamon release has a pink theme that looks pretty good.

and, fwiw, my web-app Bitty Browser works as a module/widget/gadget for them (and some others)... -Scott

I guess my first issue with it would be my access to the data. For instance, if I use a CRM that's in-house, I can get to the data, be it in Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, etc. I can setup mail merge documents with it, decide to ditch it for a competitors version, import it somewhere else, whatever. When the data is off-site I don't have those options.

Take Netvibes for example. I have my favorites stored there, which is great because I can access them from anywhere. However, when their site is down (and it has been time and time again), I don't have access to them. No problem I thought, I'll just export them. Exporting is mentioned in their Wiki. Unfortunately, the devs never caught wind of that requirement! If these were local, I'd have more types of access to them than simply via a webpage.

The location and security of my data are the top issues with using internet services as opposed to client-side applications.

While there are benefits, there are drawbacks too, and some of them are dealbreakers for me.

The list:

* Flickr * Vimeo * Del.icio.us * Digg * Bloglines * Netvibes * Writeboard * Google Maps * Google Local * Meebo
--
Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95

Netvibes, Protopage, Pageflakes, Live.com, and a bonus Google Personalized

Ah hypertext links. What wonders have Tim Burners Lee wrought. And look, I'm anonymous so no karma whoring.

Why do I need a seperate program to view this type of content? Doesn't it make more sense to implement such an implementation in a browser? Personally, I have been using Bloglines for a long time (and more recently netvibes). Google and Microsoft also seem to be going this way.

Of course, as long as an application supports the importing and exporting of OPML it doesn't matter what you use, because switching is easy. However, I can't really justify running a whole seperate application that seems to do little other than launching Firefox anyway.

Windows Live seems to be a clone of Netvibes

Actually, it is a rip off of netvibes and all of them are rip offs of myYahoo portal (only with a lot of javascript [no, i wont use THAT buzzword]).

Microsoft has another page which IMO is better than this, it is start.com. It works with firefox and it is under that domain that the new Hotmail beta service is 'hidden'.

about the Windows Live bit, it is just plain brand naming.

Yes, I have tried to use those kind of browsers but somehow they are not completely "compatible" with quite a bunch of sites...

The biggest downside is that there's no easy way to get an overview of everything, you can only see headlines from one feed at a time.

The big advantage is that it does keep track of which headlines you've already read, like a newsreader or an email program.

My current favorite feedreader is http://www.netvibes.com/ -- not to say that that can't use some slick features (keyboard shortcuts, f'rinstance), but I like the rearrangable panes, easy configuration, general flexibility.

Overall, I'd say netvibes is a better 'good morning' dashboard.

I downloaded it right away, because IMHO it is a nice browser BUT I have uninstalled it right away because it is not supported by NetVibes. I've just made it my homepage as I find it really cool.

Sorry opera... it seems the "Impersonate Explorer 6" is not working ..