Netvibes vs. Pageflakes - design and basic functions
This post is about design and basic functions of Netvibes and Pageflakes.
I started this category “Netvibes vs. Pageflakes” because these projects are very similar from the angle of functionality and design of Netvibes and Pageflakes is very close too. There are two groups of functions - RSS feed reader and different modules that give wide range of functions that people can use and receive different kind of information and other services.
I will start to comment these projects with the top part of Pageflakes and Netvibes.
The top part of both projects is very similar - on the left corner is button “Add content” where you can add RSS and ATOM feeds and different modules. Speaking about modules, Pageflakes have very wide range of different modules, in this moment 68, but Netvibes have only 16. In one of next posts I will write about the modules and then I will describe them more widely. On the right there is few buttons like “settings”, “sign out” etc. In the rest space there is possibility to add tabs and in this way you can manage your content. Netvibes have one small but nice option to add icon to the tabs and that helps to personalize them better not to only give a name of the tab.
In the rest part of screen is content and module boxes. Boxes are arranged in columns the number of columns in Pageflakes is three but Netvibes offers to change the number of Columns from two to four (default is three), but I think the best number of columns for readability and usage is three.
Each content box has more features that are similar to both start pages, you can collapse them, drag them etc. You can also personalize each box - change name of box (Netvibes and Pageflakes), give the number of items displayed in the box (Netvibes and Pageflakes), change color of the box (Netvibes), and Netvibes also load favicon of each feed so of position of personalization Netvibes is better and have more features in this moment.
One of biggest minus of Pageflakes is feed reader who has much less reading area than Netvibes. Reading area of Netvibes takes almost all space of screen, but Pageflakes have made this screen smaller and I can’t find answer - why? Netvibes show also number of unread feeds and this is very important and it gives possibility to quickly see new information and you don’t need to search what you have read and what you don’t. In the end I will give marks to both projects, these marks will describe how I see who have better possibilities in each of elements - this time design and basic functions.
Pageflakes: 3
Netvibes: 5
Christoph Janz Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 10:59 amHi Maris,
Thanks for starting this great series of posts! Very interesting observations. We will take all your comments and suggestions very seriously.
Just one little comment on the size of our RSS Reader: I think the advantage of not making it full-screen is that you can still view some other flakes and feeds at the same time if it doesn’t take up the whole screen. So you can switch to a new blog or news feed without having to close the RSS Reader window, which saves users a mouse click.
I’m not sure if it outweighs the disadvantage - we’ll think about it. Maybe it’s a question of personal taste or RSS reading habit, respectively.
In any case we know that our RSS Reader is far from perfect. We’re still working on numerous enhancements and new features.
Keep up the good work!
Best regards
Christoph
P.S.: Regarding your previous posting on the Alexa comparison, sometimes it’s hard to understand the Alexa charts. Look at today’s picture: http://www.pageflakes.com/users/christoph/AlexaNVPF.png
. I archived it because it can look completely different tomorrow.
sandra Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 11:16 amyou’d better archived it, coz it’ll be the last time you could think of coming that close of netvibes
these guys are geniuses, and they don’t polute the whole web with their sales pitch like you do at pagefakes.
Maris Says:
May 5th, 2006 at 11:21 amYes, maybee the feed reader size is matter of taste, but I think readibility is better when information is on the big screan and mixed background can also steal attention and it can be hard to read for long time.
I think it is worth to think about.
And thanks for the stats I will check them for some time and maybe figure aut some theory :). It is wery interesting - maybe I will write a post about alexa :)
Ole Brandenburg Says:
May 6th, 2006 at 9:05 amHi Maris - in case you would like to add a feature to your site that lets you add your RSS feed to Pageflakes:
http://www.pageflakes.com/subscribe.aspx?url=YOUR-FEED-URL
…and the button: http://www.pageflakes.com/subscribe.gif
Cheers
Ole
Random Yak Says:
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:07 amShowcase Carnival: “It’s Your Monday, Pick a Ride” …
No, I didn’t forget to post the carnival yesterday. My Monday was hijacked by a group of random-but-vicious viruses (the little-known "Yak Flu") which knocked me out all day, thereby deleting my Monday altogether - meaning that toda…
Netvibes vs. Pageflakes - modules, Part 1 Says:
June 14th, 2007 at 7:35 pm[...] My previous two posts of Netvibes vs. Pageflakes category - design and basic functions and statistics I was writing what these startpages offer in basics, but this post will be about [...]
kgopidas Says:
August 28th, 2007 at 11:33 amhi,,
can anyone pls give me an idea about the technical aspects of netvibes home page design,,, am really confused about the controls used by them(is it web parts??? ) and amount of user friendliness that the controls provide to the browsers,,,
Noah Says:
October 4th, 2007 at 12:22 pmThey are called widgets. The great part is that developers can create new widgets which you can use on these sites like netvibes and pageflakes. You can have the system grab code off another system for a widget. Many of the widgets are simply syndicated content like for CNN, USA Today, etc. These companies post articles as a “feed” which your homepage grabs every time you open it. I use the netvibes alternative:
http://www.browserstart.org
Noah Says:
October 4th, 2007 at 12:23 pmOh, yeah, these widgets are often called “modules”