NetVibes, the startup that lets you assemble all your favorite widgets, feeds, social networks, email, videos and blogs onto a customizable homepage, is rolling out a new feature today that lets users create personalized widget-based web pages. NetVibes’s tool, called Theme Publishing, is a visual design editor that lets users personalize and edit every part of their page’s’ theme, from images to background.
The layout of the editing tool is fairly simple. Users “click and pick” on the page:, meaning they click which part they want to edit and pick options from a color palette and design option menus. NetVibes offers a directory of themes or you can create your own theme. You can also publish your theme to the gallery for other NetVibes members to use. Every change is shown live in a preview pane, making it easy to see how a particular design will look. Plus, users can add widgets, feeds, social networks and more to their pages. The bonus: it’s all free.
While the new feature is sure to attract users, it is also likely to attract the attention of brands. NetVibes says that ad agencies, including Ogilvy and Razorfish, are already using NetVibes’ theme design tool to create interactive, uber-personalized microsites for clients that are branded and contain customized widgets for social networks and feeds. NetVibes is also offering a new XML-based Theme API, which will enable web designers to create animated themes on their pages.
The startup recently launched “drag and follow” widgets for Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, making it easy to create custom widgets around followers or feeds. Although NetVibes was a pioneer in personalized widget homepages, it has since been overshadowed by iGoogle. At TechCrunch’s Real Time Stream CrunchUp in July, Netvibes previewed a new live feed reader and instant update architecture to make RSS real-time, which will be officially launched in the near future.
they are doing amazing work lately.
Very focus and commited team by the way.
Looking forward for big things coming
Really great work. Doing great things lately.
And, I have to say, very focus and commited team.
Looking forward, I feel big things are coming.
The theme they created in that demo is a monstrosity straight out of 1992. Why do companies spend money on features their users will not only fail to use, but fail to understand?
> The theme they created in that demo is a monstrosity straight out of 1992.
Which is impressive when you consider the fact that Mosaic, the first graphic browser, was released in 1993.
Wit: The keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure.
Dictionary: you
ah god, that music..
I think that is the biggest challenge for tech companies- understanding that the mass majority of most users are vastly less web-savvy than everyone working for them. They get too ahead of themselves and fail to communicate properly with their potential customers about how to use features- or what those features even are.
Lot’s of European’ ’s use netvibes. They know their stuff and are doing a good Job.
Amazing!! Actually yesterday I started to use it.
Netvibes is the only “startup” web service I have always stayed faithful to. Why? The functionality is nothing truly special, after all. I guess it’s two things: the commitment of these guys to their project is impressive and endearing; and (above all) the site is reliable. Never had any connection problems.
Great work from the Netvibes team. Kuddos.
Really ? overshadowed ? what is iGoogle ?
Go netvibes! best homepage of the web.
Thanks
Is it really fair to say they got into “web design?” Theming isn’t the same as designing.
This sounds nice. NetVibes seems to have a solid team at work. I wish them much success with their new theme publishing tool. Now I’m gonna give it a try…
It’s Netvibes, not NetVibes, Goddamnit.
I had hard times admitting that there are still users for these services (iGoogle, Netvibes…)… but thumbs up to nv, they are doing an excellent job !
Not to mention the fact that Netvibes seems to handle multi account support for twitter.
Add to it the ability to create searches faster than on twitter or tweetdeck, and can create a feed for each user you want (like filtering all the tweets from TC in a separate widget) and you’ve got one of the best social monitoring tool available for free !
If someone comes up with a netvibes widget that can actually track some data about your use etc, then I’m pretty confident that for companies, it’s one of the best way to communicate and share with their userbase.
Love the theme designer anyway.
This is exhilarating news, really they are going great. Now there is really good competition in the web design industry. Waiting for the real time RSS reader. It will be exciting technologu si updating day by day.
@ben ogden, @Matthieu Lemaire, @henkifr, @neotericuk A big thank you for your comments.
All kudos go to the Netvibes team, they are just fantastic (no ass kissing, I really mean it
Theme Publishing is receiving an incredible welcome. Already 307 available!
The Instant Update platform is moving along nicely as well. check this sneak peek at http://blog.net...ts-live-update/
Finally, @henkifr, the paid version of the Public Page (Premium Universe) can have tracking tags but we hear you and agree… stay tuned
cool… thanks