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Dugg: Becoming 2.0: all startpages, the comprehensive review. startpages part 2 | Justin Fenwick

Justin Fenwick: "(...) I looked through 20 different options, which exhausts the lists of other older comprehensive reviews I found. (...) Netvibes is without question the one to beat. (...)"

read more | digg story

Dugg: Ajax homepages market review | ZDnet.com

[A lengthy analysis of the main Ajax homepages (aka personalized start pages), concluding that Microsoft and Google are set to dominate.]

Published February 28, 2006:

"(...) Over the past year many new AJAX homepages, aka personalized start pages, have been introduced to the market. Microsoft and Google have offerings, as do a host of small startups. First I’ll define what an AJAX homepage is, then I’ll do a feature comparison between the leading services. (...)"

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Dugg: Netvibes Ginger is now open to everyone | Tariq Krim / Netvibes.com blog

Posted March 4, 2008: "(...) Netvibes ginger is now open to any netvibes registered user. (...) Ginger features and performance improvements:

•     General startpage loading time improvements
• Prefetch feeds features
•     Flash audio player improvements
•     OPML import/export improvements (now available in adcontent/add a feed section)
•     Mobile and iPhone versions improvements
•     Feedreader content is not updated if marking all items of a tab as read
•     New Ginger thumbnails
•     "Send to my universe/Send to my private page" feature improvements
•     New Premium Widget : Stechworld, L'express, Usa Today, FranceTelecom, Computer World UK
•     Widgets Improvements: myspace, digg, FeedReader, Weather, multiple feeds widgets (Premium widgets), preconfig widgets

(...)"

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direc.tor offers a richer UI for browsing del.icio.us

Johnvey Hwang's del.icio.us direc.tor is a client-side web service broker for del.icio.us.

As he puts it:

"(...) del.icio.us direc.tor is a prototype for an alternative web-based rich UI for del.icio.us. It leverages the XML and XSL services of modern browsers to deliver a responsive interface for managing user accounts with a large number of records. (...)"

After installing the del.icio.us direc.tor Javascript bookmarklet for Firefox or Internet Explorer, browse any page on del.icio.us, click the bookmarklet, and your browser will show the del.icio.us data in an entirely different user interface.

As it happens, the thingy is an AJAX application. Wikipedia says about AJAX:

"(...) Asynchronous JavaScript And XML, or its acronym Ajax, is a Web development technique for creating interactive web applications. The intent is to shift a great deal of interaction to the Web surfer's computer, exchanging data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the Web page's interactivity, speed, and usability. (...)"

Now, if I understand Johnvey's explanation, while a standard web service broker intermediates the traffic between the user and a service on the Internet, a client-side web service broker like del.icio.us direc.tor lives on the client browser, which cuts out the middle man and therefore saves a lot of data traffic going back and forth.

Be it as it may, the result is an entirely different experience at browsing del.icio.us. Through direc.tor, it's clearly easier to browse through larger sets of bookmarks, narrowing down searches tag by tag. Me like!

Somewhat related on www.josschuurmans.com:

• How does BlinkList compare to del.icio.us, really? (February 10, 2006)
• Observations about (social) bookmarking (February 9, 2006)
• Rashmi Shinha's cognitive analysis of tagging (November 28, 2005)

Technorati Tags: Johnvey Hwang, del.icio.us direc.tor, del.icio.us, AJAX, social bookmarking, client-side, web service broker, javascript, bookmarklet, UI, user interface