Review: PageFlakes (Web Desktop)

I posted a while back complaining about the lack of quality Web desktops despite the fact that they're multiplying like rabbits.  For a more complete list, see Mike Arrington's PageFlakes review.  On the advice of one of their employees, I've been using PageFlakes for the past few days.  Overall it's a pretty good product, but I'll be going back to Google as my homepage for the simple reason that it's fast and I have QUICK access to search as soon as I fire up my browser.  Other than that, here are my thoughts:

Pros

• Nice clean interface
• I love the ability to add custom notes to a page
• The biggest variety of widgets I've seen in an online desktop
• Flickr integration
• Del.icio.us integration (including clouds)
• OPML support
• Drag and drop widgets from one page to another
• Nice feed reading interface

Cons

• Their support crew wasn't able to tell me if my GMail password is stored in encrypted format, so I didn't feel safe even testing their GMail integration
• Javascript errors in Internet Explorer 6.0
• Didn't work at all in the Flock browser
• Some quirky CSS display issues with feeds
• Takes a long time to load (anywhere from 4 to 15 seconds by my watch)

That last one's a big deal.  I don't think this market realizes that if you're going to be somebody's home page, you have to load quickly.  This is a big gripe of mine with just about every Web desktop out there.  I want to make it my home page, but when I fire up my browser I usually have a purpose in mind, and I don't want to wait more than a second or two for the search box to pop up.  I don't care if I have to wait for everything else on the page to load, but make that search box POP.

Overall, however, I think PageFlakes is probably the most feature-complete Web desktop I've seen.  If they can fix the loading time, Javascript errors, and address my security concerns I'll probably go back and start using them on a regular basis.

Comments

[alex]

Jason,

Take a look at www.goowy.com. We have a full webtop experience that extend beynd start pages with application like functionality for email, contacts, calendaring, integrated instant messaging, file storage and sharing, minis - widget, etc similar to pageflakes, and more!

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

- Alex

[Neil Williams]

You might also be interested in a brand new start page available called Funky Homepage (http://www.FunkyHomepage.com). It's comprised mainly of Google gadgets (as well as Gadgets from other sources), live news feeds (with your choice of news provider), daily Bushisms, daily jokes, horoscopes, videos, weather (up to 5 locations), interactive calendar, Google calendar viewer (for up to 5 Google calendars), comic strips and lots more besides. It also lets you choose your own search engine, colour scheme, etc.

Unlike many of the other personalised start pages available, there's no need to create an account and it's all already set up for you, with the most popular gadgets organised by category and sub-category. So there's virtually no setting-up work required by the user, making it ideal for the mainstream audience and those (like me) who can't be bothered to do all the work of setting up their own page. More adventurous (and less lazy) users can choose to add their own Google gadgets and RSS feeds, but most people just use the gadgets and tools provided.

Unlike Netvibes, PageFlakes and all the other AJAX powered home pages, Funky Homepage does not use a drag and drop interface. Instead it allows you to select from a drop-down list of the most "popular" gadgets and feeds - "popular" according to the Google gadgets most popular list, that is. As such, it's not really intended to compete with the flexibility of Netvibes and PageFlakes, but instead is intended to address a gap in the market for those who want something a bit more funky than Google or Yahoo, but without all the setting up required of Netvibes and Pageflakes. So only the most popular gadgets are offered. Although it still maintains a large degree of flexibility for the more adventurous users, allowing them to enter their own feeds and gadgets, should they wish. Whether you like it or hate it, at least it offers an alternative from the plethora of AJAX-powered homepages that are now available.

It's free to use and you can check it out at http://www.funkyhomepage.com