Netvibes Universe
Today Netvibes is launching their next “big thing” (6pm Eastern time). I found out about it on Friday from a press release sent to me by my contact with the company (because of the upcoming interview).
The big thing is called “Netvibes Universe”.
So what the heck is it? Well according to the press release it is…ahem…
With Netvibes Universe, users can collect, design and syndicate their entire digital world in just minutes. Moving beyond traditional blogs and social networks, Universes bring together and deliver on a single Netvibes page all types of rich online media, including RSS feeds, websites, podcasts, videos, blogs, and photos, along with web services, including del.icio.us, Digg, eBay, Flickr, MySpace, YouTube, and widgets from nearly any platform.
Starting today, users can enjoy content in over 100 Universes that have been created by Netvibes pilot content partners. Furthermore, Netvibes will soon announce the availability of tools to allow all Netvibes users to create their own Universes and use them as outlets to express, showcase and share their complete Web life with others.
Now what does this mean really? It’s essentially a tab that contains a bunch of content from a single source. Some big companies (CBS, CNN, Forbes, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, etc.) are pretty excited about it, and will have their own universes starting today. Another big aspect is that a lot of music artists are gonna have their own “universes” as well…although I don’t know if I would call Mandy Moore a top artist, but to each his own. To give you an idea here is a shot of her universe.
It appears this is a way to tap into the community phenomenon that is still raging (why myspace is so popular I will never know…that site is hideous). For instance, you can create your own universe…load it up with content that you like, and then share it with friends, family, whatever.
I can see this as a really cool thing for a blog like creativeUI or devlounge because I could create a universe that would have a bunch of great UI feeds and such (including this site of course) and then share it with all interested parties. However, I can’t imagine creating a personal “universe”…one with pictures, etc. and then giving that out to friends. Maybe that is just me…I don’t get Twitter either so what do I know about trends?
My Take
Now take this opinion with a bucketload of salt because I have not yet used these new features, but here is my take on it.
- Space - On my Netvibes page, space for tabs is at a premium. I don’t like having more than 1 row of tabs, and I can fit about 12 on a row at 1280 x 1024 resolution (which I just about have filled up). You start adding in your favorite band and site universes and you are gonna end up with a whole lotta tabs really quickly. That, to me, and my weirdness about keeping a clean page, makes me a bit wary.
- Single source - What drew me to online start pages initially was the fact that I can get 15 articles from 15 different sources all in 1 place very quickly. A universe from the washington post will give me 15 articles from 1 source. For a user like me this seems counter productive…can’t I just get all that info from their website?
Now, again, I haven’t used the feature, but I will soon and I will remain open minded to see where Netvibes takes it. If any of you get a chance to play with it, drop a comment and tell us what you thought.
So there is the “scoop”. Bottom line is it’s nice to see that the online start pages are still innovating. Right now they all look and behave about the same. The winner (i.e. the one that will be around in 5 years or who gets billions from google) will be the one that can stand out from the crowd with unique features. This looks to be just such a feature.
If anyone sees a U2 universe out there, let me know!!
Below is the full press release in case you are interested.
