Netvibes: a true entrepreneur school !

It was a few months that this Netviber Experience blog was sleeping, when, just a few days ago, was launched the new start-up of Tariq Krim, the Founder and former CEO of Netvibes : Jolicloud.com, the EasySimple cloud-based netbook Os.

As I am very interested in the subject, I checked for Tariq Krim's new Team and I was not surprised to see working with him 2 former interns at Netvibes, the best Personalized Startpage.

That gave me the idea to check "What the other Netvibes team members have become ?"

And after a few searches and emails here is the result:

First, the team running Netvibes after his departure, is still the one he hired : Freddy Mini (CEO) , Annabelle Malherbe (CFO), Franck Mahon (VP Product) Florent Solt (CTO) , Maurice Sway (Lead Designer) , Stefan Lecher and Chris Damson (Business development).
Second, what strikes me the most is that Tariq Krim is not only one of the best Web talent-scout but also that his presence, his visions and charisma have produced what I would call an "European start-up syndrome" similar at what you can see in the Silicon Valley.
Just check the list of Former Netvibes' team members or interns, that have spread out of Netvibes and you will agree with me !

This list is in no particular order and if somebody knows more, please let me know ;-)

"Génération Netvibes" : the entrepreneurs vibes,

- Romain Huet,
Co-Founder of JoliCloud with Tariq Krim
Lead Developer
http://www.jolicloud.com

- Hubert Michaux,
Co-founder & CEO at HelloCoton
http://www.Hellocoton.fr

Victor Cerutti,
Co-founders & CTO at HelloCoton
http://www.Hellocoton.fr

- François Hodierne,
Founder at h6e and ladistribution

http://www.ladistribution.net

http://h6e.net
Founder at Blogmarks.net
http://blogmarks.net

- Marc Thouvenin,
Founder and CEO of Regioneo
http://www.regioneo.com

- Alexander Kirk,
Founder of Factolex (Austria)
http://www.factolex.com

- Gang Lu,
Co-Founder of OpenWeb Asia
http://www.openweb.asia

- Colin Romain,
Founder and CEO of Fubiz
http://www.fubiz.net/

- Florent Gibeaud,
Co-Founder of Investside and Keo Networks
http://www.investside.com/

- Christophe Dufour,
Co-Founder and CEO of Investside
http://www.investside.com/
Co-Founder and CEO of Keo Networks
http://www.keonetworks.com/

- Aurélien Faches,
Co-Founder of Aaaliens
http://aaaliens.com/

- Michael Cohen,
Founder and CEO of a new company (if anyone has the name let me know)

- Jean Francois Groff,
CTO at Fairtilizer and founder at Vizta
http://fairtilizer.com

UPDATE:
- Nicolas Dangler, mixin.Com
Co-Founder of Mixin.com
http://Mixin.com


I also tracked the others who left:

- Antoine Marguerie,
Lead Designer at Fairtilizer
http://fairtilizer.com

- Laure Chouillou ,
Communication Manager at Forum Netexplorateur

- François Bureau,
Support & QA Manager at Citiesxl
http://www.citiesxl.com

- Tristan Groléat,
Intern at Jolicloud
http://www.jolicloud.com

So, 13 14 people left Netvibes to create their own company and become an entrepreneur, 4 are in the internet start-up business and, as far as I know, the rest of the team is still in place,

Preparing this list, I also thought at all of those who were influenced by Tariq Krim' Netvibes approach and, yes, I admit it, I was among them !

First, I just launched a new blog about ... Jolicloud , called : JoliCloud Experience !

But that is not all, I am also preparing to launch a new Web Venture with my partner Kim : 1PRISM.com

So, Thanks Tariq ! And, Who is Next ? ;-)

... and Netviber Experience' (NetEx) blog will stop here !

Hi to all my readers,

When I started this Netviber Experience' blog in December 2006, Netvibes was a young 1 year old start-up.

Now Netvibes has turned 3 and is a "mature company" ;-).

I think that this blog has completed its mission and I have decided that this will be my last post here !

Don't be sad, I will continue to participate with my own posts in Netvibes itself.

Just follow me from my Universe: http://www.netvibes.com/netviberexperience .
(click on my profile and add me to your friends. It will be a pleasure for me :-)

Then I will also continue to post on twitter, friendfeed, facebook, ...

So thank you to all and...

Arrivederci !

Happy Brithday, Netvibes !!! 3 Years !!!

Time flies !!

Jouyeux Anniversaire !!!

Buon Conpleanno !!!

Happy Birthday !!!

My worst nightmare ? My Netvibes page invaded by smileys ;

check out this awful Netvibes's clone : smileycentral

Do you know your Netvibes' user ID number ? Check it out!

mine is: 16994722

Just go here http://www.netvibes.com/activities ,
click on your username in the menu,
go bottom of the page and click on JSON icon there check for the first "userId": the number is your own User ID.

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 ;)

new Netvibes' Share option to customize and export UWA Widgets

In a very rich week full of new features (Google search box, Buzz and Public stream) Netvibes will also offering a new Share option to customize the apparence of UWA Widgets.

As the all ecosystem will be rebuilt with new features (n° of installations, platform % and weekly trends) and a better search :), a new option is already offered under the Share menu in the ecosystem bottom menu line.

With this you will be able to export the widget you like (here is mine: the NetEx blog ) with a few customizations and preferences:

• title of widget
• height
• width
• border colour
• ...

Very interesting is also the GRAB THE WIDGET CODE window: with a copy/paste you are now able to export any UWA widget and place it on any WEB page (except the ones like Blogger who prevent javascript) !

The applications are with no limits!! The widget revolution is coming ?

Thanks Netvibes!!

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.

Google search box does not take that much space in my Netvibes

Netvibes has launched yesterday a new Google Search Box integrated in the Netvibes page.

It is a smart move to offer a new option to "new users" that will arrive from now on on the service.

For Older and more expert users, the move is at the moment seen often as an "intrusion" (just check the hot replies at the Netvibes Blog post )

Many complain of the "invasion" of the awfull tool bar and the bad visual impact and effect. For that 2 solutions:

1. just hidden the feature by clicking on your Settings, look for the Search options and select hidden.
2. but, if like me, you still want to keep it on your page because you do not need a title on your own page ;) and you like to have an option to save your searches in your Netvibes page, then go for Setings/ look for Search options and select "above title".
   This way your search box will be there near the "search in page": not a lot of space for a feature that will be improved in the near feture ;)
   

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

I visited the Netvibes Team in their Paris' Office

Last Friday, I was in Paris (France) and received a kind invitation to visit the Netvibes office that I accepted immediately :)

First, let me thanks Franck Mahon (VP, Product Development) and François Bureau (in charge of Custumer care) that for a few hours accepted to discuss freely with me (as an average user) of some of the hot topics about Netvibes.

I had the pleasure to get a preview of the new Google search integrated search box that today you have found in your Netvibes page.

Some other cool features are on the way (new activities Dashboard, ...) but I agree with Franck: let's announce them when they are ready and working ;)

Second, I would thank all the Netvibes team: it is a small team (20-30 people) of young men and, yes, women working hard to offer the best service to an audience of very difficult users (not all, ok, but some :) ).

Third, Tariq Krim, the founder and still shareholder of Netvibes, is not anymore there. His office, is now empty but the Team works as before. The pace and targets for Netvibes are setted and the step by step long term strategy is there focusing on improving the Homepage service and at the same time developping the Widgets distribution and that was one of my main concerns.

When Franck asked me why users were so much interested in Netvibes revenues, compared to other companies, my instinctive answer, to a question that I never thought before, was: "because I like so much the service that I want to be sure that Netvibes will be there in 1- 2- 3 -5 years!"

Later, on my way to home, I thought that I never thought this before for any other service.
I do not care about Twitter or Facebook financial situation.

If with Netvibes is different, is because, as a user, I have the feeling that Netviber is listening at my requests. And it is true: Franck and François read all the posts and comments about the Netvibes service and the Team tries always to improve.
Have you seen the new Netvibes_Help service on Twitter ? Others are copying it now.

I love so much the service that I have also offered to be the first paying suscriber to a Netvibes Delux edition (Franck, my coins are still on the table ;) ) as, of course, early subscribers will get a special price... and a picture on the wall.

But good news: Revenues are "already growing in line with business plan" and more good news are coming...

Fourth, Franck and François are very polite persons as, at my request to know what was my most stupid post on this blog, they were kind enough to answer that there were a few but none was presented to me...

Just François, recommended me that if I had any problem with Netvibes to complain directly to the Feedback service instead of any other way, because the feedback form allows Netvibes to help you sooner and better. (I will make a post on that)

So, in conclusion, a very instructive afternoon and a regret: not having the time to talk and thank all the other individual team members about their own job and visions.

Ding, ding, ding !! (private joke) See you next time !!

Don't like Tennis ? Get Comics widgets on your Netvibes

If you are not in Tennis or Sports, or if you want to change subject, netvibes has prepared a selection of Comic Strips widgets.

In another effort from Netvibes, to offer some content to new users, the selection is presented on the Netvibes Universe, just go here: If you like the widget, click on it and it will be added to your own Netvibes page.


You will see Classic Comics as:

Dilbert,
Calvin & Hobbes,
Garfield,
Snoopy,

or new characters as:

XKCD,
Ctrl+Alt+Del,
Penny Arcade,
Cathy
Kawaii

Enjoy!

As a matter of fact, the one I prefer is the little lady with green shoes designed by Karine. Would love to have a daily widget from her ;)

I compared 4 news aggregators in my Netvibes: Wikio, Google news, Inform and Topix.

As often as with subjects that I want really to follow well, I need more than one source. So, this time I wanted to compare 4 different automatic news portals in my Netvibes page: Wikio, Google news, Inform and Topix.

As you can see from my capture, I have setted all 4 with the same number of feeds and details and I have selected also the publishing by date. Wikio and Topix are publishing also pictures.

What is interesting and contrary to my expectations is that the 20 news on my screen are all different ! That depends of course on sources and methodology and on the date of publishing.

That would also suggest that all 4 portals have different approaches that could appeal to different users.

For Wikio I have choosen the Wikio.co.uk (as the Wikio.com was less focused on the tournament and a special human created directory: http://www.wikio.co.uk/sport/tennis/tennis_tournaments/wimbledon.
Wikio searches the medias but also the blogs (if pertinent).

For Google News it is the .com edition and the search string is just Wimbledon and Google news is limited at the media (no blogs). The same works for Inform which presents a selection of UK media sources. Topix checks thousands of sources.

I must confess, with just this 20 results, I am not able to choose which is working best. I will have to look a them, over time.

But if things remain like that, I think that I will keep just Wikio and Google news to check eachother as the human content selected sources (blogs included) of Wikio can correct the full automated Google news based on ranking.

And you, what is your favorite and why ?

If you want you can check my Tab in my Universe.

I have the official Wimbledon 2008 Widget :( just 1*/5

I just found the official Wimbledon 2008 Widget for the Tennis Championships:
It is distributed by Clearspring.com and sponsored by IMB. And it gives scores, news and palyer info.

But this Widget does not work properly with Netvibes and my FF3 even with the dedicated Netvibes download option.
Sizes are not working properly (as they look inverted) and there is no way to move in the widget area as no scroll is available :(
Are they using UWA ? Not sure...



NetEx Rating: 1*/5
The worst possible result for a Widget : Just a big Ad and no way to use the widget :(

If somebody want to test the widget and try to fix it, click here :

No good Wimbledon 2008 widget available ? I have for you a feed, a radio and video on demand

As Netvibes has not (yet?) any Wimbledon 2008 Tennis Championships widget to offer, I have decided to check the Web for you, and me ;)

First stop: the Wimbledon web site : all the news, the pics and , of course, the scores.

An the official RSS feed is also available :
click here to add it now to your Netvibes page



But there is more:

You can listen to Wimbledon Live Radio

and if you really want more, there is also the Video On Demand :


And WEB 2.0 is not forgotten: you have a small window on the right column: My Wimbledon ;) : you can choose your top 5 preferred players and follow their results and news.

If you know other interesting sources, let me know.

Netvibes is no more a Start-Up

With the replacement of Tariq Krim by Freddy Mini as new CEO, Netvibes has given a clear sign that the almost 3 year long Start-up phase of the project is now finished.

Many well informed insiders, as Pierre Chappaz (shareholder and former co-CEO of Netvibes and actual CEO of Wikio.com ), have declared : Netvibes is now entering the monetization phase.

On the practical side what does it mean ?

First, it is the end of all those activities for which no revenues are at sight and that could mean a reduction in the Social Features or at least not a futher development.

Second, Netvibes will move to look for a broader massive distribution as the recent deal with the French largest Cable company (Numericable.fr) by which the 4.8 million users of Numericable will be able to access a "personal" mynumericable.fr homepage. " my numericable is a completely customizable web portal for Numericable customers. MyNumericable lets users access personalized TV schedules, email, billing services, local news, weather, games, blogs, widgets and other popular services like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube—all from a single, convenient startpage, powered by Netvibes". This personal homepage is provided by Netvibes as a premium Universe.

Third, an increase of the offer of Widgets, produced and or supported by Netvibes in the hope that the long waited boom in that market will give Netvibes the revenues it still looking for.

For the average end-user, as myself, all that could mean:

• less "glamour and hipe" that only Tariq Krim was able to create around Netvibes
• lesser options to choose from as that is increasing complexity and then costs
• lesser development of the Social side of Netvibes that could have create a real Netvibes'community around the service
• lesser interest from Netvibes team to create my long dreamed Single Social Interface

I hope to be wrong on many issues ;) as I think Netvibes is now just at half of its potential and that the most interesting part of the Service is yet to come.

Netvibes will be off-line this Sunday: maintenance

The Netvibes Blog has announced a 2 hours break in service for Maintenance for this Sunday:

"In order for us to prepare some upcoming features we have a maintenance job to do this week-end. We'll have to bring the site offline for around 2 hours Sunday 22nd of June at 6am UTC (which makes it Saturday 21st at 11pm PST for our users on the West Coast).

During that time we'll also update part of the backend to improve performances.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this might cause you and would like to thank you for your support."

I suggest you take the usual precautions and also add a few hours to the expected break ;)

Hope that in case of longer wait, Netvibes will use its blog and/or its Twitter/netvibes_help to keep us informed... Not everybody will be out this Sunday :)

I want to tag, search and store my Share/Star It activities in Netvibes

It is a few monthes that the Ginger release of Netvibes is out and one of the features that I prefer is the Share/Star of My Activities.

I use it to bookmark pages, ideas, blogs, urls that I want to keep for a later use and/or reading. I use it a lot: at least 4-5 times a day.

I like it because I can also choose to publish it with a comment to all "my friends" or just to keep it for me (private).
I like it also because with FireFox I can use the Star button in my browser or the bookmarklets if the add-on is not installed and also the Star it button if placed by websites.
I like it because I can see and read what my friends shared and starred.

But, I have a big problem: as I have now a lot of them and all this Shared/Starred activities are just visible in my Activities by clicking on Activities in the upper menu.

They are presented in a the "most recent first" order and there is a search button.
The search is based on all Activities (mines + friends) and on words. Then the results are presented just with this little black window.

The My Comunity widget is ok but presents only the last 25 activities... and there is no search

I want more !

With my Share/Star it Activities I would like to be able to:

• separate Shared Url from other activities (as shared widget)
• separate my activities from others
  
• have the possibility to store the share urls with folders or tags or...
• be able to rate (1 to 5) the activity
  
• to move and rename and delete some of the urls shared
• search by date and tag
• to save , backup and export/import

I hope I am not the only one in this situation and to not send me to http://del.icio.us/ ;)

So, if you are a developer you should start reading this (Netvibes Developers Forum)