Netvibes is finally looking for more local content

Hi,

I already wrote a few posts on the need for Netvibes to get more Content, and especially Local Content, the one related to the place you live and work.

And it seems that Netvibes has just decided to go alos that direction.

In a recent post in the Netvibes Developers' Blog, they wrote:

"... that local content is as important to us as is global content - and it’s even the primary reason behind UWA and Ecosystem: to let developers build widget for local services, to let users submit local feeds and data, and have all these local items be available to all Netvibes users."

"So build local widgets and submit them to Ecosystem: local items are just as important as global ones, and everyone wants local informations coming directly to their desktop! That’s what UWA is for, and we hope to some cool widgets land on future updates of Netvibes’ local start-pages. Let’s build the long tail of widgets!"

The big problem is the search of the Ecosystem Directory that is not as efficient as a similar search with Google.

If I want to find my own tab: LONDON (UK) in the Netvibes Ecosystem

1) I can search the Ecosystem with its own search : http://eco.netvibes.com/search?q=LONDON+UK , and I will found it in the second page because of the small number of downloads (but in results with a better download rate there is BEEF BAGEL ??!!). If I prefer I can choose the "most recent" but then again as it is not a new widget, mine will not show up. So, it will be difficult for a new widget to show up in the first page if only downloads is requested.

2) I can search the Ecosystem with a selective search by GOOGLE:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Aeco.netvibes.com+LONDON+UK&btnG=Search
and bang! It is the first result! Impressive.

That is for searching a specific item but the problem remains with a generic search.