New Netvibes Tour and Slogan: "SAVE 30 MINUTES OF YOUR INTERNET TIME EVERYDAY"

Netvibes has also prepared a "Tour" of the Ginger release that explains step by step what to do and how to do it. A very good tool if you are a new user !

Netvibes has also a new double Slogan:

MANAGE YOUR DIGITAL LIFE IN ONE PAGE.
SAVE 30 MINUTES OF YOUR INTERNET TIME EVERYDAY

I can only agree ;)

Only down side: the presentation Tour is not adapted to LapTops with normal screen sizes :( and at the moment is only in English.

All new Netvibes users are now offered only the Ginger Update version at registration

While migration to Ginger update continues for all registred users (still with some problems), all new Netvibes users are now offered the Ginger Update at registration.


So, now I will be able to invite my "real friends" and they will be on Ginger in just a click ;)
Thanks!


That means also the end for the Coriander version.

I tested the new Netvibes FireFox extension: star and add feeds in 1 click: 5*/5

I just installed the new Netvibes Firefox extension Add2Netvibes v0.8.0: (works from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 3)

In a few clicks and a restart, your FireFox will show a Star and a + icon in the Browser bar.

When a site is interesting, you click on the Star icon to save the Link with a comment, in your private or in your public activity.


When a feed is present on a selected page, the grey + button changes colour and becomes green. By clicking on it and choosing which feed you prefer, the chosen Feed will be added to your Netvibes page that is open in another FireFox window.
That way you can go back to the selected page.

On the contrary, if you click in the orange RSS icon that is shown to the right of the address bar, that will also add your Feed in your Netvibes page but it will open and create a new Netvibes page that will replace the "original page" that will not be open anymore. And you have now 2 different Netvibes pages open :(

Just for that, the Add2Netvibes extension is worthwhile installing !

To be able to use them, it is better to have already opened your Netvibes before.

NetEx Rating: 5*/5

A good and simple extension, only for FireFox, that works better with Ginger (but everybody will be upgraded to it).

The only problem I see, is not related to the extension but to the fact that the Activities of my netvibes page will no doubt increase with it but without a proper backup and a proper search for them.

If I have to look through my activities hour by hour because I do not recall the precise title I am looking for that will be a huge problem for me.

This search and backup of Activities should to be solved as soon as possible... perhaps with the personal Drive ?



HOW TO INSTALL :

Firefox extension

1 - Install the extension

Install Add2Netvibes v0.8.0 (works from Firefox 1.5 to Firefox 3)

If you see this message at the top of the page, click "Edit Options", "Allow", "Close", and click the install link again.

2 - Restart Mozilla Firefox

Once the extension is validated and installed in Firefox, you must restart the browser in order to finish the installation, and use the extension. After the restart, you will see a new button in your toolbar. Ginger users will also see an additional button to star any page!

It will be added in Link Widget in my REAL ESSENTIAL WIDGETS (and extensions) in my Universe.

Netvibes has changed the layout of its Blogs

After the launch of the new Corporate web site, Netvibes has changed also the layout of its Blogs.

And guess what, the new back ground color for both web sites is ... black ! Yes, like this Netviber Experience blog.

;)

New corporate web site for Netvibes

As announced yesterday by Tariq Krim, Netvibes' CEO, a new corporate website has been launched and thanks to an "anonymous" comment on my post we have the url:

http://about.netvibes.com/

In the Management section, you will find pics and bio of 7 of the top managers of Netvibes

Something that I did not know about Tariq Krim is his early "social sistem" involvment :
" He started his first online messaging system in France while attending elementary school and has been involved in the rise of the Internet in France."

In the Investors tab, you will find news on European VCs Accel Partners and Index Ventures.

And you have also an Awards tab.


A nice corporate site with links to blogs, ginger, developers, tools, content, ....

Also here: Better late than never !

Tariq Krim Netvibes' CEO announces improvements and offers apologies

"First and foremost, please accept our apologies for the downtime following netvibes' major architecture upgrade."

With these words, finaly, Tariq Krim, Ceo and founder of Netvibes of Netvibes, announces the end of the "Spring Up-grade" (not for all) and, more important, the changes that are coming.

Here is the list:

1) Every Netvibes page will be moved on Ginger (first to migrate, the most frequently used). That is cool as I will be able to invite "real friends" that are not techie ;)

2) No obligation to create a public netvibes (or universe): you can activate it anytime later.

3) Wider Localization: the new CDN has improved dramatically both in speed and acceleration worldwide (USA, Europe, China, Africa, South America) with more than 140 countries. But content is not already following

4) A new Corporate Web site for Netvibes is announced.
My guess: http://corporate.netvibes.com

5) a lot of other new services and widgets will be presented soon.


Well, better late than never !

PS: I have lost all my Friends and Activities ... but I am sure they will come back :)

Netvibes is back but I have lost all Friends and Followers

Have imported my Netvibes OPML file in Google Reader

As Netvibes is still down and as I have so many feeds to check I had to import in Google Reader my OPML file.

Hopefully I had exported it from Netvibes just before the maintenance.

But, I do not like the Google Reader, I miss my Netvibes with its colours, its webnotes that I position just where I want, my Wall, My community, my stars, my Friends, ...

Well now, I have just my feeds :(

As users complain, Netvibes should give more informations

The official Netvibes Blog is completely silent about this "general" problem with the maintenance process that is now running for more than 24 hours.

Tariq Krim, should get to us with some information even if no dead-line is available: that is what we call "customer service".

Thanks!

My netvibes is still down (28 hours after mainternance)

still waiting to use my Netvibes page, and today not even a slow netvibes :(

Sorry, we are unable to connect you to Netvibes.

Due to a network problem, your page is currently unavailable.
Rest assured, we're working diligently to have your favorite start page back online very soon.

Thanks again for your patience.

- The netvibes team

Netvibes is not fully working ( 15 hours after beginning of maintenance)

Main problem: all My Activities .

Here a comment from a netviber user on the Netvibes blog on the subject:

Netvibes is a professional product. Too bad the network operation is so utterly amateur.

Netvibes is back with some changes

Here are my first impressions on the new Netvibes after the "Spring update":

1. Netvibes seems to charge faster but not extra fast ;) that is also because I have too many tabs and feeds.
   
2. The Drive icon in the upper menu has been taken away :( Is that meaning that the 2 free Giga Drive will not be offered anymore ?
3. In Add Content a new Start Wizard option is offered for the new users. By clicking it you are asked for your Localisation ant your main interest. I have tryed it yesterday and I was not really impressed as when I was looking for "design" I was offered only all the searches on "design" but not a single Feed... At the moment, nothing equals human elaborated content. You can try it even if you have already Ginger, as it will just add more Tabs to your page.
   

Some Bugs:

1. The native Feed Reader does not allow the "read all" in one click on the number of unreaded items as before .
   
2. The "My community" widget and the Update Profile are not working but probably because Netvibes will wait for all servers being upgraded. (?)
   
3. some of My Followers are marked with the green icon even if have not added them as Friends so there is no use for the green icon !

As always some users complained that the site was off for more time than scheduled and that there was no way to have a backup server even with a limited access. That should be improved.

But, I would like to thank publicly the All Netvibes team for their work day and night !

Netvibes is back :) !

Thanks to all Netvibes Team !

Netvibes still off (after 5 hours)

Next Wednesday 23rd of April at 4am UTC Netvibes will be off for 4 hours for Maintenance

The announced interruption of on-line service of Netvibes on Wednesday 23rd of April at 4am UTC
(check your local time) should last 4 hours (maybe 3) confirms a Netvibes team member.

Social twist of Netvibes will not be mandatory for all users

In a comment on Netvibes Blog, a Netvibes team member has declared: "the universes will no longer be mandatory".

That means that, as requested by some users, the new Upgraded version of Netvibes Ginger release will provide an option for them not to have the Public Universe page in function.

That social side of Netvibes with friends, followers and activities can reduce speed in charging the page and is not requested by all users.

The new version will be installed next: Wednesday 23rd of April at 4am UTC (click here to check your local time).

Netvibes will be off-line for Maintenance next Wednesday 23rd of April at 4am UTC

Netvibes blog has announced, this time in advance, that the site will be off-line for an unknown, hope short, period of time.

That major maintenance upgrading will be made next week at the following times:

Wednesday 23rd of April at 4am UTC click here for your local time

that translates as:

for US WestCoast: Tuesday 22nd at 9.00 pm PST

For LONDON: Wednesday 23 at 5.00 am

For PARIS/ROME: Wednesday 23 at 6.00 am

for MOSCOW: Wednesday 23 at 8.00 am

for NEW DELHI: Wednesday 23 at 9.30 am

for BEIJING: Wednesday 23 at 12.00 am

Pageflakes, smaller Netvibes' competitor, is acquired by Live Universe

News has just been confirmed by TechCrunch that:

" 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. 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."

More news on Pageflakes blog.

Why Netviber Experience Blog is publishing 15 times more Tips and Posts than Netvibes official Blog ?

While I was posting my previous post I noticed that since January the First, the Netvibes official Blog has just posted 9 times while this blog, Netviber Experience Blog (NetEx) , has posted 137 tips and other posts only on and about Netvibes !

Why ? I do not know, but that is the main reason, for me, to continue to publish this blog with:

• tips
• widgets reviews
• widgets requests
• Universes reviews
• new services requests
  
• news about Netvibes and its team
• ideas

Some Netvibes Ginger users want to downgrade to Coriander

TheNetvibes Blog comments shows that some Netvibes users are not happy with the Ginger release. Many find it too slow.

If you think the same,

1. try to empty your cache with this "magic" url: httt://www.netvibes.com/?reset_cache=1
   
2. send an email to Netvibes support team (check for feeback in the bottom menu of your page)
   

But, if you really prefer to go back and downgrade to previuos version Coriander, still available from Netvibes, here is how to do it:

1) get a new Netvibes account with a different email

2) do not register to go to Ginger

3) import your Feeds from the Ginger version with the OPML file (that is a catalogue of RSS and ATOM feeds you use).

To get your own OPLM file with Ginger :

1. go to Add Content
   
2. Add a feed
   
3. look for the small text OPML and select export

Not able to publish new status and post blog at the same time

with BLOGIT from Six Apart .
Because posts are just published with a short sentece as: "Blogging "Post" http://netviber.blogspot.co. " and a link to follow the post.

:(

New secret icons for the Netvibes' MY WALL widget

There are 42 new "secret" icons to be used with the MY WALL widget on Netvibes.

I have found a few: (cola) (beer) (wine) (cocktail) (birthday) (fire) (gun) (burger) (phone) (eat) (love) (bikini) (egg) ...

Missing are: champagne, kiss, sun, moon, beach, pasta, pizza, rice, flower, flowers, gift...
Anyway try yourself and write using them on your Friends' Wall.

My own My Wall is at: http://www.netvibes.com/netviberexperience#WRITE_ME

Where is the Netvibes free 2 Gb online storage drive ?

Just 2 monthes ago, Natvibes was announcing that:

"Agematis, provider of online data storage and sharing solutions under the Steekr name, and Netvibes, pioneer of the personalized page, have combined their expertise to offer the users of Netvibes an online file storage and sharing service. Fully integrated in the new version of the Netvibes site, the service will be available on the personalized pages of Netvibes users as well as in Netvibes universes". Thanks to this service, completely based on the Agematis Steekr technology, each user of the Netvibes community will have access to a 2GB storage space that will be extendable upon request." "Within the Netvibes environment, the service will make it possible for everyone to play his/her music, to look at his/her movies or to create a slideshow of his/her photographs without having to download anything on his/her computer."

The Drive icon is still there in the upper menu, but when will it be working ?

I think that that all the Ginger users of netvibes should at least have an idea of when the service will be offered, if it will be !

Now FriendFeed accepts Netvibes directly

FriendFeed, I was writing a few weeks ago, is a new service that aggregates in one page your own and your friends' various Social Networks feeds and updates.


At the time only 33 services were available but now you can show your own Netvibes Public activities (and read your friends' ones) with a direct option:

Netvibes

Another news service added is :

Mixx

On the use of the service, I was to point that FriendFed is just interesting if you want really to check "all the activities" of some of your friends !!

Small bug for the Netvibes' Contacts board ?

I do not know if it is a small Bug or not, but my Netvibes' Contacts Board shows me only contacts with the green sign on their side: all my friends , of course, but also all my followers ! And some of my new followers I have not already had the opportunity to visit their Universe and to add them as "my friends"appear with the green icon. It is disturbing, because to know if they are already friends I have to visit their Universe and see if the Friends line is missing (that means that I have not already added him/her as a friend)

If you check the image here: you will see that last month that green sign was not always present.

My Netvibes went just down :(

UPDATE: Netvibes is back :)


" Sorry, we are unable to connect you to Netvibes.

Due to a network problem, your page is currently unavailable.
Rest assured, we're working diligently to have your favorite start page back online very soon.

Thanks again for your patience.

- The netvibes team"

The Flying Shopping experience: so cool !

My dream: the Flying Shopping Experience. ;)

I have some problems with adsl and phones so I will just publish this image set fromFrench photographer DENIS DARZACQ from his HYPER 2007 set.