The personalized start page is dead. Long live the personalized start page. Pageflakes, a nice-looking but perennial also-ran in the world of start-page startups, has been officially acquired by Brad Greenspan’s Live Universe, a deal we reported earlier this week. Terms were not disclosed, but it was a combination of cash and stock. Pageflakes CEO Dan Cohen will remain in charge of the business and help to integrate it into LiveVideo, as well as continue to maintain it as a separate site.
Despite its easy of use and appealing UI, Pageflakes never really took off. ComScore measured only 50,000 unique U.S. visitors in March, compared to 1.4 million for competitor Netvibes. (And 191,000 uniques worldwide in February, versus 2.4 million for Netvibes). iGoogle had 7.4 million U.S. visitors in March, and My Yahoo had 19 million. But Cohen, who used to run My Yahoo, argues that the difference has more to do with distribution deals than organic growth and that linking up with Live Universe will give Pageflakes the distribution it needs. Says Cohen:
A lot of the growth in the personalized start page category has historically been kickstarted and is still derived from internal and external distribution deals, not organic or viral growth. The original My Yahoo of ten years ago received an incredible amount of traffic from the main Yahoo.com portal (and it still does), and the same went for iGoogle when it launched in 2005 - that little “iGoogle” link in the upper right hand corner of the standard Google.com page was the engine that drove (and continues to drive) traffic to the site.
Comscore shows that even our friends at Netvibes derive most of their current traffic from one deal, the my.alot.com white-label page they did with MIVA, and didn’t experience any growth until that deal occurred last fall. In short, to really thrive in this category, you need big distribution deals with generous revenue share percentages.
I do think that the number of traditional personalized start pages that can co-exist as standalone sites (not affiliated with a distribution network) is pretty small.
In other words, maybe he should have stayed at Yahoo—or Google (where he also worked briefly). The other thing you’ve got to wonder is: What will the half-life of start pages be in a Friendfeed world?
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any hint regarding a deal value?
The netvibes graph looks like its on steroids! I’m surprised PageFlakes never got that much traction - the value prop of their product wasnt far off Netvibes. I guess first mover (or third mover if you count Yoogle) advantage counts for something.
The sheer amount of bullshit you guys write, to say nothing of your spelling and grammar, is truly spectacular.
“only” 191,000 users, is that all? WTF does it matter how many users another website has? Why is that relevant? If they can run their website and make a success out of it with that many users then good for them.
Techcrunch has become, or was it always, a parody of the stupidity and ridiculousness that is the internet in 2008. All numbers, no substance and writers more interested in their stock portfolio than real writing.
Great!!! To be tested!!! Just now!!!
Erick, you are such a surly and cynical guy! The Pageflakes crew are good people that made a good product that consistently gets great reviews. From what I’ve read, they raised a fraction of what Netvibes did (4M vs. 16-20M for Netvibes), and Tariq and his boys barely have anything to show for it other than a huge bar tab at Web 2.0 expo parties. So let’s see…Pageflakes works hard, creates a good product, do a lot with a lot less money than their overfunded competitor, get a decent user base, recognize the need for distribution, sell to a distribution partner. What’s wrong with that? Everyone’s happy! Why aren’t you?
Pageflakes’ geolocalized content delivery is nice…
@ emma, Slim,
Excellent points. I’ve never come across so many people up their own arse as I have in the Web 2.0 scene. 23 year old writers who don’t even know what a Operating System actually is. And the grammar and spelling. How hard is it to run it through a checker? Kids at school do it.
I love Pageflakes. Netvibes Ginger update was a total ripoff of Pageflakes user flakes/pagecast’s area. I still love pagecasts, and Netvibes don’t have that. Not last time I checked.
Where Netvibes does shine is with it’s intuitive Universal Widget API. I would like to scream the words “Screen Real Estate” at the Netvibes team. That and the damn annoying waiting page as it figures out what it’s gotta do before actually beginning to load your start page, make Netvibes a turn off for me.
Pageflakes runs circles around Netvibes when it comes to features, usability and functionality.
What exactly did Erick say that is pissing everyone off? I dont see where in the article he said Pageflakes or the people behind it suck.
then perhaps you should read it again! the criticism is implied simply on the basis on numbers and numbers alone.
to paraphrase
“oohh Yahoo got 19 million users, Pageflakes only has 191,000 so surely Pageflakes sucks so why bother?”
I never used PF before today but now Netvibes, which seems to have problems updating the feeds on my list is in the bin, so thanks TC for pointing me in the direction of a better service!
emma, slim, and ray seem to be nifty sock puppet accounts. if they keep trolling will they eventually pretend to hold a conversation amongst themselves?
oh, pageflakes sucks. my grandma’s blog about old timey typwriters has more than 191k+ uniques.
Widgets man…whod’a thunk?
Sockpuppet my arse http://www.article19.co.uk if you want to get in touch!
chucklehead!
Is there anyone else who was turned off this site based on the name alone? Yeah I know it’s petty but…. c’mon Pageflakes?
Sounds like a breakfast cereal for librarians.
I prefer to use protopage. The feedreader is great. p.s. I am a librarian.
Haha, we are having to agree fully with Markus. The name itself is rather unappealing!
@Shafqat #8: Of course you don’t see it…because you are using the same eyes that looks at the graph above and thinks that hitting 1.4 million uniques is “on steroids” (Shafqat #2)
This appears to be a good next step for both companies. I am excited to watch the next steps.
I wouldn’t really agree to the fact that PageFlakes had a easy to use interface. I wanted to try the service since I was having a small problem with Netvibes. It took me more than the usual amount of time to add a new subscription. When I subscribed to TechCrunch on it, some posts would show up and then others wouldn’t. This left me completely frustrated and I abandoned it.
I guess it was a get it right the first time or you’ll never get another chance thing.
Wow you guys seem pretty upset. Not sure why. I think they are both great companies, I use PageFlakes and the founder (Christophe) seems like a great guy. Why can’t we all just get along?
It’d be great if we could get numbers for this deal.
Is anything new in the in the world of start pages destined to be a “perennial also-ran”? I hope not. I just launched quick.as and I have a measly 400 uniques … although granted the press release went out about 6 hours ago!
I agree with some of the criticism in the comments above regarding numbers not necessarily being the best measure of success. It is all relative to the site and what it is you are doing. I spent a month developing quick.as off the smell of an oily rag so I’d be rapt with 191,000 uniques a month!
At the same time, I appreciate hearing about the numbers of uniques start-up are doing as while it is not the best measure of success, it is a pretty important one!
Another point. From a users point of view (and hence business viability) I question the value of these highly customizable, cluttered, slow loading start pages. I have tried them all in the past and become too frustrated with how slow they can become. Obviously it depends what you put on there, but I found it was easier just going to the source site to find whatever content you were after. That was part of the rationale for quick.as. Don’t people want a a start page that allows you to quickly go to a site that gives you content, rather than trying to deliver content like Pageflakes, Netvives, et al.?
I access this blog through pageflakes. It’s a nice gui, it loads fast. Proud to be one of the 191k.
They have been working on OPML export feature for years. I remember requesting that more than an year back.
http://www.pageflakes.com/insider/?p=56#comment-74
No wonder why people leave.
I’m really not sure that 191,000 users is the issue though is it. Although that’s not a global figure anywhere, and there are plenty of UK users. Surely what’s more important is how useful it is? And it is - very. Not only is the concept good, it is easy to use - I have people up and running with Pageflakes inside 5 minutes - but it is clearly better than Netvibes in countless ways.
I’m hopeful that this deal will ensure that Pageflakes is able to expand and increase the user base and add even more use and functionality.
I would say the #1 requirement for a start page is speed. This personalized start pages drawing content from other sources are never going to have a satisfactory load time for the average user.
Thats why a lot of people have simply set google as their start page. Personally my start page is set to officialhomepage.org (which i found thro a ad in techcruch btb)
I’ve used PageFlakes and LiveVideo. The most interesting line in this article is that PageFlakes will be integrated into LiveVideo! I remember doing a video and bulletin about Web Parts on LiveVideo and sent in a suggestion that they give users the option to mash up RSS feeds on user profile pages. I wonder if this is an attempt to implement that idea? It certainly will make LiveVideo your one stop communications headquarters on the Internet.
to Emma: You have to think about it from TechCrunch’s viewpoint. #1 TC’s business model is based on pageviews/uniques so that will always be important to them. #2. A headline that mentions a more visited(popular) website is more likely to be read.
So, of course, that will be their primary focus.
Still, that doesn’t change the fact that we(myself, you, and I imagine others) would be interested in articles about lesser known companies(anyone can find info about Pageflakes) that are profitable. Especially those companies that aren’t venture funded. Anybody can generate revenue if they are given $4M.
BIG LIVE SHOUT OUT TO EMMA!!
Wow what happened with Netvibes in August 2007? Their traffic skyrocketed. I don’t remember any big stories about them from that time, but that doesn’t mean anything really…
Erick,
Any idea what is the cash amount they got paid ?
thnx.
Cue TC user “* Miss Universe” to leave a comment urging all of to believe that Brad Greenspan is the second coming and that TechCrunch should do an interview with him.
I wonder who “* Miss Universe” might be? Hmmm…
One more home page startup….
http://www.GetMeValue.com/flavorHome.aspx
I think everyone’s so wrapped up in widgets they’re missing the point with start pages. I want usabilty and versatility, so much in 2.0-land IMVHO is prescriptive.
I don’t want to have to choose just widgets, or just feeds, or a to do list that does nothing else (unless it’s gorgeous and extremely usable like http://www.gubb.net)
My start page is http://www.symbaloo.com - I’ve had a look at most of the others and none give me the range of options that Symbaloo does. I don’t think I’ve heard it praised on TechCrunch yet but maybe I missed it…?
And for what it’s worth I wish people would get away from talking just about stats. These explosions in traffic and user figures usually mean one thing - they’re not here to stay. Far better to build a smaller audience/userbase of people that love your site rather than millions of ignorant people that don’t know how to look around for something better.
Rant over. Go and sign up to Symbaloo [and no I'm not affiliated, just very much in love :)]
@ Sean #29 - the reason for the big traffic jump at Netvibes was, as said in the article, a distribution deal with toolbar/spyware company MIVA (my.alot.com), where they have a whitelabel version of Netvibes. I checked this out in Comscore and it looks like my.alot.com and Netvibes had a spike right at the same time that alot.com launched. It looks like an iFrame implementation, so users see my.alot.com but the “hit” also counts to netvibes.com (double count). If you look at the Comscore source/loss report, you’ll see that by far the #1 source of Netvibes traffic is alot.com.
Robert (26) - I am thinking the same thing. With Ginger, Netvibes is out there adding a social network to a personalized start page, while LiveVideo is adding a personalized start page to a social network. I heard a rumour that iGoogle will bring Opern Social in as well.
Once had tens of millions of users, they launched an open developer widget platform. This was basically a personal widget homepage added to the product. That’s been really succesful. So, if you think about it, it’s really smart to add widget aggregation and personalization to social networks, which is exactly what LiveUniverse is doing. I don’t think it makes sense to add a social network to a start page, though, which both Pageflakes and Netvibes have done, apparently with little success.
Robert (26) - I am thinking the same thing. With Ginger, Netvibes is out there adding a social network to a personalized start page, while LiveVideo is adding a personalized start page to a social network. I heard a rumour that iGoogle will bring Opern Social in as well.
Once Facebook had tens of millions of users, they launched an open developer widget platform. This was basically a personal widget homepage added to the product. That’s been really succesful. So, if you think about it, it’s really smart to add widget aggregation and personalization to social networks, which is exactly what LiveUniverse is doing. I don’t think it makes sense to add a social network to a start page, though, which both Pageflakes and Netvibes have done, apparently with little success.
The Live Universe and Pageflakes deal is very exciting! Can’t wait to see Pageflakes’ growth after the Live Video deal.
You can already preview how the LiveVideo / Pageflakes integration is going work by going to the beta site at: http://livevideo.pageflakes.com/
@ Robert (37) Thanks, do you know we can join the beta test group? I’ve signed in through your link, and now I want to give feedback.
Skiba,
The social features of start pages haven’t worked mainly because their user base is dramatically inferior to that of the big social networks, and as long as they’re unable to interact with those networks, most people will stay wherever their friends are. Opening the lines of communication in this field would change things completely, but as it never happened for instant messaging, I’m not holding my breath.