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.

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.

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.

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 ]

I wonder who “* Miss Universe” might be? Hmmm…

Any idea what is the cash amount they got paid ?

thnx.