January 22, 2008

500 Invites for Netvibes Ginger Beta

Erick Schonfeld

117 comments »

Netvibes is opening up the beta for its Ginger release, and 500 invites have been reserved for the first TechCrunch readers to sign up here (enter code: “TCGINGER500″). Ginger will become the default interface for all Netvibes members in mid-February, but if you click fast you can get a peak now.

Netvibes is a customizable start page that lets you add any RSS feed, as well as other apps in the form of widgets that you can drag around the page and place anywhere you want. With Ginger, Netvibes has a new Ajax user-interface that pops down a pane from the top whenever you want to add new widgets to your personlaized start page. It also now lets anyone create their own public “Netvibes Universe” page (before, these were just pages for brands). You can star items in any feed as a bookmarking feature, and there is now an activity stream so you can see what your friends are publicly starring and sharing as well. There is still no internal messaging system, however.

I spoke with CEO Tariq Krim, who took me through the new features by phone from Paris. Overall, Ginger makes the Netvibes experience a lot smoother and finding widgets to add to your start page couldn’t be simpler (even though there are 110,000 widgets to choose from). The problem with Netvibes is that if you don’t get into the habit of going there as your start page first thing when you log on in the morning, you are liable to skip it altogether. I asked Krim when he will turn his widgets into Facebook or OpenSocial apps. That way, people could bring the widgets to where they already go to organize the Web for themselves, if that place does not happen to be Netvibes.

Krim is working on this portability. Netvibes is part of OpenSocial and he’s had Bebo-like discussions with Facebook. “Both consortia would like us to be exclusive on their technology,” he sighs. (Sounds like the platform war is in full swing). Krim says he wants to work with both OpenSocial and Facebook. Ultimately,he doesn’t care where you consume his widgets. By the end of the first quarter, he plans on introducing widget ads in the form of micro-banners and text ads. The problem with widget ads, though, is that there are no standards.

“We need the equivalent of OpenSocial for advertising,” he laments. If only everyone could agree on how to make money, the widget economy might actually come into existence.

Update (Michael Arrington): Tariq Krim gave me a brief overview of Ginger this morning, see video below.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

Drazen - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 am PST

Hey, thanx for the invites. I will use it.

LiveCrunch - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 am PST

I already got that, it’s awesome. Ill forward your invites to others too.

I think they could do lil bit better.

Antonina - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 am PST

For RSS I prefer now the new Mindity over google reader and Netvibes. It has many social functions, as well and it’s a desktop solution (I prefer desktop software for such things)
http://www.mindity.com/WhatIs.aspx

allen stern - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:13 am PST

I guess that’s the embargo that the Netvibes guy kept saying on the online stream at the crunchies.

Maybe they should have picked a food name that people use a lot like Ketchup or Salt - people don’t use Ginger in large quantities usually

Bali - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:44 am PST

thanx for the invites

Zuggu - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 am PST

I stopped using netvibes a while ago when I started using google reader for my rss. Maybe if they could integrate google reader inside netvibes I will go back

marc duchesne - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:45 am PST

Hi Erick : thanks for the heads up ! Just signed in, account to be migrated within minutes. Thanks again

sylv3rblade - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:47 am PST

Hey nice, I made it to the sign up. Hopefully the changes will let me stick to Netvibes instead of a desktop reader.

RootsArts - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:48 am PST

thanx for the invites

cyril - January 22nd, 2008 at 5:58 am PST

thanx for the invites

Wooopsie - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am PST

oops. code is expired. could you publish another one pleeease? (:

Ravi Bhushan - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am PST

Thanks for the invites. A much awaited release for Netvibes fanboys like me!

Grandin - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:01 am PST

Would love an invite - curious to see how this rocks v. Flock

Matt - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:02 am PST

Yea, it isnt working anymore

Edwin - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am PST

Aaaargh,

It has expired already. Was too late in Facebook too, though i was early there.

Guess I have to wait once again :-/

Ceno - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am PST

Invite code expired already =(

If anyone can spare an invite, please send to: techcrunch.7ht@gishpuppy.com

Spanks a lot!

Mark - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am PST

If anyone has an invite, please invite me to the party.

Thank You

raft - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:04 am PST

not working anymore for me. Thanks anyway.

Matt - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am PST

If anyone gets one please email it to me at Matt@AnotherPointlessBlog.com

Thanks

Bill - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:13 am PST

Thanks for setting up the invites. If anybody gets another one can they send it to me? wahoobudd@gmail.com

Thanks

Mr. Opportunist - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am PST

Thanks, signed up with it earlier today, going to give it a try!

Alexis Brion - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 am PST

Invites are gone

Vinod Ponmanadiyil - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:17 am PST

If anyone has Ginger invites please share one with me. vinodis - at - gmail dot ccom

Veritas - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:22 am PST

“Ultimately,he doesn’t care where you consume his widgets.”

Well, if that were *really* true then he’d allow us to embed Netvibes widgets on our blogs with an embed code.

Joke Cricket - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 am PST

hi..please send me an invite too — jokecricket@gmail.com

Jason - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 am PST

My Page. My Universe. LOL.

Pratham - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:32 am PST

100GINGERWW (via Webware)

Tmass1 - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:32 am PST

I would love an invite if any one has one to spare!

Thanks!

email: tmass1 [at] gmail.com

Michelle Sullivan - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 am PST

Well that’ll teach me not to make Techcrunch mandatory pre-coffee reading …

The early bird and all of that

Argenis Alvarez - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am PST

If you have already an account in Netvibes Just go to: “Don’t have an invite code ?”, and there you will be able to get an invitation Enjoy!

Steve C. - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:40 am PST

@Pratham

Thanks!

I’m using goowy, iGoogle, & now Netvibes on a Flock web-browser and 8hands on my desktop. May the best app win!

Rudi - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:48 am PST

Would love an invite of someone has it: rodi.a.k [at] gmail.com

ripple024 - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 am PST

would really like to have an invite if someone would be so kind….

mattkeithley@gmail.com

Netmark - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 am PST

Netvibes is nice, really nice. But I can not use it why? Because I have to use gmail and google reader everyday. igoogle simply makes the use of gmail and google reader much easier. I use netvibes, but later give up and focus on igoogle. I need to Kiss (keep it simple, stupid) in order to be more productive.

siblog - January 22nd, 2008 at 6:58 am PST

If anyone has more invites to spare please hook me up! simonengelbert -at- yahoo -dot- com

Thanks

Jean-Marie - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:07 am PST

Merci TechCrunch pour l’invitation pour Ginger !! Bien reçue et merci beaucoup

auston - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:07 am PST

I need an invite in my life! They’re all gone.

Steven Finch - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:14 am PST

Hi Mike,

Is there any chance you can send me an invite, because the code has already expired. I would like to review the service on my site.

Thanks

Ben Kessler - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:20 am PST

Yeah how did this post only get 38 comments and the 500 invites were already used? Hmmm. I’m dying to play with Ginger.

Russell Heimlich - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 am PST

Man, this looks so sweet. Can’t wait until it launches!

woopsie - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:28 am PST

Plz gimme an invite too

my mail is mikhasev -at- gmail -dot- com

Manish - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:29 am PST

Hey,

Thanks for the invites. I already use NetVibes. Need to check the ginger version.
Thanks,
Manish

Aravindhan - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 am PST

would any one send me a invite i will be thankful

Xavier - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am PST

@Veritas (#24) : try these
- http://dev.netvibes.com/doc/howto/widget_export
- http://freddymini.blogspot.com.....idget.html

Bali - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:34 am PST

Rob Roy Movie is a website devoted to the Rob Roy Movie. Rob Roy was release in April of 1995. It star Liam Neeson as the title character and was directed by Michael Canton-Jones. The film is a fictionalized dramatization of Rob Roy and his battles in the Scottish Highlands against landowners. Much of the film was shot on location in the Scottish Highland and faced many of the same problems that befell the production of Braveheart. Although the film did not fair as well as Braveheart come Oscar time, Tim Roth was nominated for best supporting actor in his role as the villain in the film.

David Moss - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 am PST

For an alternative to Netvibes, see Protopage.com

Chad - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:42 am PST

Well I got the invite and got my account upgraded, but now Netvibes has slown to an absolute crawl. I hope it’s just a symptom of traffic on the new release, and not something endemic to Ginger overall.

Steven - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 am PST

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah :’(. I was too late. Why is Netvibes torturing me like this?

happywebagency - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:49 am PST

thx 4 invites to ginger!

send me quickly, pleeeeeeeeeeease !

elux - January 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 am PST

Hey guys,

if someone can spare an invite to a web enthusiast/developer please send it over to elux101@gmail.com

Thank you.

Lin - January 22nd, 2008 at 8:02 am PST

How did the code expire so fast? I actually USE netvibes and wanted to try the beta.

Guillaume - January 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am PST

Thanks mike for the invite… gr8 stuff… really impressive new interface. Why need any alternative ?

AngloScot - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am PST

Don’t want to miss out; can someone send me an invite? Thanks!

AngloScot - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am PST

yatesjarvis@gmail.com

gregg - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:24 am PST

For everyone still needed invites this code still works (just did for me:)

WIREDGIN100

AngloScot - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:31 am PST

^^^ this worked, thanks!

Jenn - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:32 am PST

The FACEBOOK code still works

Lin - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:52 am PST

Thank you, Gregg. Your code worked!

Ken - January 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am PST

WIREDGIN100 is expired! FACEBOOK worked like a charm!

Patrick Altoft - January 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am PST

Before you all upgrade the new version is awful. The text is too close together and you can no longer right click to mark things as read.

Worst of all you can’t go back to how it looked before.:-(

Aaron - January 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 am PST

I guess the FACEBOOK code was for the facebook group, but I didn’t get an e-mail or anything.

It did work, woohoo! I’ve been waiting forever.

Jason - January 22nd, 2008 at 11:32 am PST

Guys, I’m creating my own universe. lewl.

Leech - January 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm PST

FACEBOOK still works. Thank you

Jeremy - January 22nd, 2008 at 1:41 pm PST

any more invites? FACEBOOK is not working.

Laura - January 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm PST

Is anybody having trouble logging into netvibes on the regular site?

I’m getting “There is no match in the database, check your infos and try again”

KGyST - January 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pm PST

For me, FACEBOOK worked. Thx.

bastard - January 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pm PST

Regular netvibes appears not to be working. Can’t login and netvibes does not recognize my e-mail address anymore. Anybody else with the same problem?

bastard - January 22nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm PST

again, they let me register with FACEBOOK but still can’t logon. Got a message “Ok. Your account will be migrated in a few minutes!”, but still doesn’t work

Paul Thompson - January 22nd, 2008 at 3:34 pm PST

Yep, got expired on both the TC and FB codes. Any chance we can get something figured out with this?

KC - January 22nd, 2008 at 3:41 pm PST

Really interested to get this invite! Hope someone can spare me an invite!

email: kokchiann@hotmail.com

Thanks in advance!

John Pastor - January 22nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm PST

Send me an invite!

j [at] deliciouslybinary [dot] com

Ville Autio - January 22nd, 2008 at 10:56 pm PST

send me an invite, please

ville.autio [at] gmail [dot] com

ulysess - January 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 pm PST

I want another, please

Nice blog

Phil Jeudy - January 23rd, 2008 at 1:06 am PST

Wouaou, I’m the 74th to post.
On the scale of celebrity, what’s the position of Nevibes? Equivalent to its business model potential?
Anyway, good work…If a can get an invite for a good friend of mine, much thanks!

Netviber - January 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 am PST

I had 50 invitations , try here if still working

http://netviber.blogspot.com/2.....vibes.html

vectalix - January 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 am PST

Someone still have invitations ?

kuldeep - January 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 am PST

New Ginger is failing more than often….it startiing to give error on feeds…its takes some refresh keys to get back the feeds and at begining my some feeds diappeared…..and worse my universe is not activating at all
I’m feeling like why i switched to ginger

Shinji - January 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 am PST

Y’all don’t really need any invites to Netvibes…if you want to use Ginger, just check out Pageflakes…Netvibes ripped off all of their features and design for Ginger, which Pageflakes released last July as Blizzard. Suckers!!!

Muffo - January 23rd, 2008 at 7:32 am PST

Can I have one please?

My email is: superman87@mintemail.com

Thank you very much!

CJ - January 23rd, 2008 at 9:08 am PST

Invite?

cjsneek [at] friikki [dot] net

Julio Camara - January 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 pm PST

Invite?

I’am Brazilian blogger. =)

e-mail julio [at] juliocamara.com

aero - January 23rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm PST