I started using an application recently called Netvibes, which is much like Google’s personalised homepage … only better. It’s really cool, it’s ” a custom made web 2.0 home page solution” where you can build your own personalised page; you can store your blog feeds, check the news headlines, create a to-do list etc etc.
This idea of having a centralised page is nothing new, such apps have been around for years. The first one I came across was called “Start Page“, created by a very talented programmer Zoltan Milosevic. Actually based on this idea I tried to create a comprehensive script to act as a central start page or control panel with which I could manage all my web activities, emControlPanel ’twas called. This was back when I was learning PHP, the code was a bit rough but it had some good functionality. I had a tab for control panel links i.e. links to the various scripts & applications I control my domain with, a tab for bookmarks, one of a code database where i could save code snippets, one for a scratch pad, another for a half-nifty to-do list and one for a quick email application. There was a search feature where you could search the web with one of about 15 search engines plus it was easily skinnable and localizable. I’m a bit biased here but it was a half decent application. Unfortunatly the code was so dodgy that I never finished it or released it.
The sad thing is it’s been sitting for a couple of years and is now obsolete. Especially in this age of RSS, Ajax and other fancy acronyms. Any such applications would need to be shit hot like NetVibes or there’s nearly no point releasing them. It would be nice to resurrect it so if you’re an Ajax programmer stuck for something to do just give me a tinkle.
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