Scobleizer - Latest Comments in Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

trademark registration — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:59:38 -0000

I also find it really annoying to get random application addition requests from random people. There seems to be no way of getting around it. Spam will forever be prevalent in the internet.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Top Ramen — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:50:14 -0000

Another site similar to netvibes/pageflakes called Velocitized - i just launched this and am still working on development - it has a different twist to it that is geared only toward speeding up the daily Internet experience, not a social site at this point. http://www.velocitized.net/

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Noah — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 10:14:22 -0000

I have the same issue with Facebook -- I get several of these "install movie app" or "install super-wall app" everyday. Annoying -- but as long as you set your email preferences to NOT tell you when this happens, it seems ok. I think there may also be a way to block all these apps, but I've not found it yet. Any ideas?

Here a site that looks just like netvibes:
http://www.browserstart.org

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Eric Engleman — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:03:09 -0000

Thanks for the question.

Compared to my other social networks, I've been very slow with Facebook to maintain a high-signal to noise ratio. Since this is the 4th active social network, not to mention all of the others, I've been playing with. It's time to go slow.

I think Pageflakes has lost control of their message or mispositioned themselves. Their Blizzard release has been blown out as head-to-head competitor to Facebook which I don't see.

I think traditional start pages and social networks will appeal to diferent types of people. Obviously, social networks appeal to online social extroverts which you Robert are a prime example.

In regards of whether or not Netvibes and Pageflakes should compete head-to-head with Facebook. -- No. That battle is done.

The 30 million Facebook users understats its market-share in certain demos. It is the dominant application for college students which is re-ordering the way they fundamentally experience the internet. Expect to see less communication software usage from this segment as they shift to Facebook. This is similar to what happened in Korea.

Thanks for the good question.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Chi Howe — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:10:37 -0000

Pageflakes allow me to aggregate my favorite feeds into a single page, and create other pages based on my own categories, such as stock watch, news, organizer, etc. So pageflakes is essentially my first choice information center and where I refer back often. Best part is how pageflakes has designed a user-friendly interface for just about anyone to sign up for an account and start using it.

Cheers
Chi howe

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Eric Boduch — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:45:43 -0000

I must say I now use them both but use them for different purposes. I used pageflakes first and in addition to using it as a personal news source, I also use it as a resource for some companies I work with. I share a page with all the lastest news in the mobile industry from blog, podcasts, competitors, news sources with my peers.

FaceBook I use more socially to keep in touch, to find people, and informally share apps and information. I don't really see Facebook replacing how i use pageflakes nor do I see myself using pageflakes as a social networking tool.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

eric — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:42:33 -0000

doesn't the question oversimplify the dynamic?

we now have enough experience with additional layers of communication to realize that these different mechanisms serve different needs. Here is a question in the same vein: Given that many people use cell phones just to say banal commentary like "I am sitting on the runway waiting to take off", will twitter replace cell phones?

apples and oranges or gas stoves and smoothie makers.

Pageflakes' new release had me switch from netvibes. I don't get 'application or "be my friend" spam' on either of them though like i do on facebook.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

asif huque — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:26:11 -0000

i use pageflakes as my startpage. i group my widgets into seperate pages - 1 page for work stuff (Todo list, Calendar, Mail client), 1 for news (Rss feeds), 1 for entertainment (Video, audio, images, games, comics). the new "People" feature of pageflakes allows users to easily find people with similar interests, see how they arrange their pages and what widgets/feeds they use.

i am also a fan of facebook and use it to check up on my friends and relatives.

so for me at least the two applications serve different purposes. facebook is great for entertainment + networking but you still have to rely on startpages like Pageflakes if you want the bigger deal (work + entertainment).

i honestly cant see facebook wooing users away from their start pages anytime soon.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

worth — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:22:26 -0000

"Commenter filtering" is what I would develop and offer to my subs if I were Pageflakes or Netvibes or even WordPress or TypePad, for that matter. Nothing more annoying than subscribing to a blog, perusing the often intelligent and entertaining comments that flesh out the posts, then screeching off the road every time you come across a Commenter like Jay (there's also a faith-oriented blog that has really great posters but is dominated by idiot Commenters that make it tough to even visit the blog). Lots of blogs have 'em: that one Commenter who ruins it for everyone, who can't be blocked in good conscious by the blogger due to media censorship considerations, yet who readers would love to just have that person's comments filtered out as spam on an individual basis as set by the blog subscriber.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

engtech — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:12:27 -0000

I put together a handy dandy guide explaining the various privacy settings associate with Facebook applications:

http://internetducttape.com...

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Aaron — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 04:36:18 -0000

Hi Robert,

Facebook has a long way to go before it becomes a replacement homepage for Pageflakes. Checking out my friends or drawing silly graffiti pics, are less important than keeping up the news.

I use Facebook, but it's still a closed environment. I prefer the customisable nature of Pageflakes (I used Netvibes until recently).

Maybe they'll open up more of Facebook and allow more modification - but for me, networking comes second to information.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Dan Cohen — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:18:56 -0000

Robert: interesting debate :-) To be honest, I agree with several of the commenters...I don't think of us as trying to "go against Facebook." I love stimul8d's analogy of this question - “Do Radiators and Gas-Fires have any chance against Smoothie-Makers?”

I think Pageflakes and its users come from a very different perspective. Our users don't typically start out as "looking for another social network" or rushing into creating a public profile. They often start with a personalized homepage that they find compelling and engaging with respect to their own interests and activities, while allowing them to dig deeper into them and get engaged with new and interesting Pagecasts, Flakes and other content created by others. They aren't required to create a public profile or commit to social relationships in order to find our site useful or interesting, but they can still see the activities, interests, and contributions of thers through Pagecasts.

A lot of what we did with Blizzard resulted from users asking us questions like "Hey, I really like that Pagecast, how do I learn more about the author?" We wanted to give our contributors and Pagecasters a "face" - but only if they wanted one. We then of course thought it would be neat to connect you with people that have similar knowledge or interests - and not necessarily the same friends or social circles, as in pure social networks. We did not, however, consciously set out to create a "Facebook killer."

What has resulted, of course, is that some of our users hav discovered a whole new dimension of personalization, in which it is combined with some of the aspects of social networks - the "socialization of personalization" if you will. This is resulting in interactions and communications that to me seem largely different than those on pure social networking sites, and in fact are more likely to be complementary.

In short, "social networking" at Pageflakes seems to fit a different "application" than Facebook, MySpace, etc. - sometimes you connect with people based on what you know or want to know, rather than on who you know or who you want to know.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Robert Scoble — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:29:51 -0000

Jay: usually it's my spam filter that deletes comments. I am deleting comments that are rude and/or just call names without adding any real content. You can do that stuff over on Digg or Valleywag.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

MK — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:05:30 -0000

I don't think Netvibes, Pageflakes or FB holds a candle to how much more information you can gather quickly by using an RSS reader.

Call me old fashioned, but I'll take Wizz reader and my Yahoo! homepage over a two-feed widget and wall of B.S. any day.

Like the other posters have said, news != social network.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Roger Anderson — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:41:46 -0000

Facebook, Netvibes, Google, Pageflakes - they all want one thing: to be your next desktop. They don't want to just be your first Internet destination, that's not where the big bucks are at.

The real question is: Which one of these apps will be your future desktop? Will it be someone else?

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Jay (living in First Life) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:35:38 -0000

How many times will you delete my comments Scoble? Are you afraid of the fact I'm calling you out? How unprofessional is that?

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

davidjacobs — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:36:06 -0000

A few too many hits on the Facebook crackpipe for you Robert. Facebook is cool and is currently the best general purpose social network. Netvibes is great and serves a completely different purpose. I use them both but they are different and complimentary.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

PC — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 19:01:56 -0000

Apples to Oranges.
Netvibes allows me to consume all forms of content from global news to tech blogs to online deals.
Facebook allows me to see what's going on in my social circles.
They serve 2 very different functions.

Why are they being compared to one another? Neither of them are my start page.

There is one point where they would intersect, though. If Facebook allowed you to get an RSS feed of your news feed, then I could slap that onto netvibes. I'd probably still log into Facebook as the images make the news feed much richer than just text.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

J. Vermij — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:28:25 -0000

Robert,

I'm not familiar with Pageflakes, but Netvibes is my daily news distiller. Can't say that for facebook.

Netvibes isn't social networking for me, it's info-consuming . Facebook isn't news to me, ain't social networking either since Netherlands hasn't really discovered it yet. Dutchmen on Facebook are <20 K, really small compared to www.hyves.nl which has about 2.5 million (f)lying Dutchmen.

For the time being, Netvibes has my vote. Yet neither of these is gonna be the killer app. Both lack too much core functionality (for now) to really shake the web.

VeeJay

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Edwin Khodabakchian — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:16:58 -0000

I agree with Robert. As you add more widgets and applications to Facebook, you can see it slowly evolve into a My Yahoo/Page Flake/Netvibes type of environment. But a much richer environment because the modules have knowledge of who my friends are, what they do, what content they produce, what content they filter. Given all that context, it is not too risky to speculate that the future applications/modules in Facebook have the potential to be much more interesting.

Netvibes and Pageflakes need to find a way to get there users to build social graphs...not a trivial challenge to overcome.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Robert Scoble — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:48:08 -0000

Shelley: >Wow. I can’t think of statements that are more likely to push away a more discriminating audience than statements like that.

I don't get where you come from sometimes. It's just a fact that my Facebook profile has gadgets from Upcoming's calendar, Google News, Flickr photos, Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, and many other places. The author seemed to think that Facebook is only about contacts. It's not. So me stating what I've learned and how the author could learn some more (visit my profile, I've done a lot of the work for you) makes me "brittle?" Wow.

Over on http://www.scobleshow.com I just uploaded a video about Plazes, which shows that I am looking for lots of different viewpoints. Friday I had IBM. I regularly bring my viewers 80 new viewpoints a day through my link blog.

If I'm brittle it's because you just aren't doing your homework when it comes to me.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Shelley Powers — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:39:45 -0000

Have you ever noticed how the more you indulge in hyperbole, the more hostile your comments, Robert? Is it worth it?

"Facebook is becoming the home page for many of us. Why? Because our friends are a lot more interesting than anything over on Yahoo News or TechMeme or other places."

So you're no longer interested in discovering new people, hearing different viewpoints?

"Micah: you should visit my Facebook Profile page. It’s becoming a place where everything flows into from around the Web."

Wow. I can't think of statements that are more likely to push away a more discriminating audience than statements like that.

Ever thought of taking a break until after the baby is born? You sound...brittle.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Robert Scoble — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:28:05 -0000

Micah: you should visit my Facebook Profile page. It's becoming a place where everything flows into from around the Web.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Micah — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:44:57 -0000

I guess I never pictured Page Flakes and Facebook to even go up against each other, one is a social plateform and the other is basically a location to get everything all at once.

Seems to me the better question is, Page Flakes concerened about start.com or iGoogle. (speaking of which why iGoogle, is Google suddenly owned by Apple? I like how Apple sues the "iVibrator" but not Google over igoogle. Once again a two headed Apple. But that is for another discussion.

Facebook is cool, but it's going to eventually turn into another MySpace, I guarantee it. People are going to want Facebook to open up more and more, and they will end up doing it and it will be their demise.

Nearly everything on the web works this way, it's amazing at first, then it gets duplicated a 100 times, and so long cool factor.

What happened to YouTube.com ever since they were bought out I have heard almost nothing about it. It's a never ending circle, and Facebook will eventually feel it as well.

Re: Do Pageflakes and Netvibes have any chance against Facebook?

Jay (living in First Life) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:32:41 -0000

Shameless Scoble. Have you even polled 10 normal people? No one has Facebook as their start page. You have no statistics to back this up. I've asked 20 people at my office, all of whom have used Facebook to varying degrees, and not a single one has it as their start page.

How are you even invited to speak anywhere? What do you talk about? Facebook, iPhone, and Pownce? Seriously now, no one cares. Go home Scoble.