I miss the possibility to update my Netvibes status from my wap mobile

With the new 3G iphone coming, I wanted to test the mobile versions of Netvibes.

I know that Netvibes' strategy is not focusing on the mobile platform contrary to other competitors like webwag. Nevertheless, when I travelling, I like the idea to be able to check my Netvibes page on my mobile.

I can read feeds and twitts and check and write emails with gmail. And my web browsing is limited to wap compatible websites

But now, with the new open Activities policy by Netvibes, I can also read the feed about my netvibes' friends' Activity, my own activity and the public stream.

What I miss the most is the possibility to update my Netvibes status from my mobile. I miss it because I can update my twitter from my mobile Netvibes but not my own Netvibes activity :(

To go mobile with Netvibes, I found 3 different urls:

http://m.netvibes.com

http://wap.netvibes.com (the lightweight "basic" version)

and

http://iphone.netvibes.com

I presume that the first 2 give the same results, as it looks like that on my SonyEricsson.

The iphone is reserved for ... well the iphone.

new Buzz and Activities page now officialy available for netvibes

A new green Button: Browse all Activities is now available in your Activities Menu. That way, the buzz and other Activities that I announced are officilay made available to all users.

By clicking the Green Button you will open the new Activities page but that will replace your Netvibes page.

I would prefere to open it in a new window or new tab...

With the Activities page you will be able to follow the Buzz, the public stream and your own your Friends activities.

Personnaly, I would prefer to have a new Buzz icon in the Upper menu to check first the buzz but also the other activities, possibly in a new tab/page and /or in the side bar ;)

Have you seen the Netvibes sidebar option for your Friends' activities ?

UPDATE: I have changed capture to show that I can follow the Netvibes activities also watching another page... eh eh :) Would be interesting to have an option for showing or not the comments ...


When you are in the new Activities Dashboard, http://www.netvibes.com/public
select the Friends tab and in the menu at the bottom of the page you click on sidebar.

This will install a bookmarklet that is a special bookmark that when you will choose it in your Bookmarks tab of your Browser will open a sidebar, on any page you are looking at, showing your last friends' activities.

It is interesting if you are waiting for an important news and you have good friends :)

There is a 4 choice tab in the sidebar: friends, me, buzz and everyone so you can use it even if you do not have already many friends on Netvibes.

I do not know what is the refreshing rate of the sidebar ...

Works fine with FireFox 3 but I have not tested with IE...

I like it ! Thanks NTVB Team !

You can also see your activities and your friends'activities with RSS or ATOM Feeds, or even a special widget just by clicking on the icons also on the bottom page menu.

With new Netvibes Buzz you will see not just how many shared the news but also who. I like it!

With the new Netvibes'Buzz Dashboard that you can check here : http://www.netvibes.com/buzz there is a new nice feature.

When you click on the publishing date of every buzz, you are shown with all the users that starred that activity with their comments. Not only your friends but all Netvibes users.

If one buzz was started by you, like the one in the capture it will allow me to see who also shared it and perhaps want to add as new friends some unknown user.

That is the start of a true Netvibes Community

I like that feature.

If you click on the user name, you will see all his activity.

New Netvibes Activities DashBoard is "officialy" here with buzz feature

As I had announced last week, Netvibes is also launching this week the new Activities Dashboard with a Buzz feature and a Public Stream.

Check it here and no need to be registred to netvibes to view it :
http://www.netvibes.com/buzz

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).

4 rules for What are Friends and Followers in Netvibes ?

If you are new to Netvibes and/or to Social Networks like Facebook or Twitter you could have some difficulties to understand what are the FRIENDS and FOLLOWERS of your Netvibes page in the new Ginger release.


FRIENDS
When you arrive on Ginger you have already one Friend: Netvibes Then you will explore Netvibes and you will arrive on someone's universe (let's say: Free-Ingrid-Betancourt) .
If you check her contacts you will ONLY see her Follers (not the Friends !)
If you like her Universe and/or want to get in touch you click under her profile the: add friend .
(For: How to Find Friends with Netvibes read my previous post here)

If you now go in your own CONTACTS (by clicking Conctacts in your own Netvibes page) you will see that your New Friend has been added on your Friends list.

But the term FRIEND is not correct as the correct one should be: FOLLOWING.

Yes, if you are Friend with Some one, in Netvibes and the other Social networks, that means only that you FOLLOW that person.
Following means being able to read and watch his/her Activities.
(For my post on Activities go here)

The contrary is not true:

Rule 1: YOUR FRIENDS DO NOT FOLLOW/READ YOU !

That is quite strange for "normal people" but the Web works with asymmetric communication ;)
In normal life when I phone to a friend he answers me and so forth. Not here.

So, now you are able to follow Free-Ingrid-Betancourt Activities but Free-Ingrid-Betancourt is not. But on her Conctacts she will see a new Follower: you.

Rule 2: WHEN YOU ADD A FRIEND , YOU BECOME HIS/HER FOLLOWER !

That means that if you click on Activities or you watch your MY COMMUNITY Widget you will be able to read her activities , updates ...

Rule 3: WHEN YOU ARE FRIEND, YOU CAN SEE YOUR FRIEND' FRIENDS
When you are a Friend to someone you can, if you go back to your Friend Universe, see who are her/his Friends not just her/his followers. And if the Friends' of my Friends are my Friends rule works then you can find new friends...

FOLLOWERS:
Are following a person Activities.
When you check you own Friends and Followers if you see a little green mark on the right, that just means that you already have added him as Friend = you are already following.


Of course, all your Friends are green marked and possibly just some of your followers are...
But, if you check your Friend' Friends you will see yourself but with no Green Mark: Netvibes bug or choice ?


In conclusion, for what I am concerned, I think that the minimum is to check who is following you and as I am quite open to new ideas I like to transform my Followers in Friends ;)
What I require is just to have an Interesting Universe...

Rule 4: ONLY WHEN YOU AND YOUR FRIEND ARE MUTUALLY FOLLOWER AND FOLLOWING (FRIEND) THAT A REAL BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATION CAN WORK.

Suggestion for Netvibes:
When 2 users are mutually Friends that should be marked differently and perhaps also named as : "GOOD FRIENDS" with a special "BEST FRIENDS" group to be left for the Good Friends to decide...

Hope is it clear enough...

How to improve the (social) Activities of Netvibes

The Activities tab in he Ginger release of Netvibes offers 3 choices :

1. Your own personal activity that you want to keep for yourself . You will have a list of all the links you starred (shared as favorite), the Widgtes and RSS feeds you have installed, the Friends you are following or that you added, ... but also the Widgets and feeds you decided to archive.
2. Your Public Activity: your "shared as favorite" feeds or links and your Status Updated
3. Friends' Activity: is "your Friends' Public Activity "
   

For Your Private and Public Activity you have 2 options: comment and delete.
For your Friends you only have "Share as favorite" option if it was a Public Activity of the Friend but you can not do anything with their Update Status.

You have a search activities that helps you find "old" activities but you have to remember the exact title or the good friend.

The use of the My Community Widget (4****/5) simplifies a lot the Update Status of my profile and is the easiest way to check your Activities and your Contacts. (Get it from : in your private page/add content/essential widgets/My community)

But some improvement would increase the usability and then the interest in what is the Social Side of Netvibes:

Among practical Improvements it would be nice to be able to:

• star, write a short text and/or save a links/feed just for the Private Activity
• change an activity from Public to Private and viceversa (this option was existing)
• send a Direct Message to one single friend directly (perhaps on his MyWall widget?)
  
• view in My Activities the posts of other Social services like Twitter
• post and view images like in Twixtr.com
• have the option to view My own Public Activities mixed with My Friends Activities (like in Twitter ) because is it easier to follow a discussion
• increase the number of activities in the Widget (20 is very small you work and write a lot or if you have a lot of friends ;) )
• give the possibility to filter and backup your Best activities for future use

Among other futuristic features I dream of there is :

• a Web Browser plug-in that would allow me to Star (share as favorite) any content I would see on the web directly in my Netvibes page with a comment to be shared with friends or just archived for myself.