new ALL FEEDS Widget : Netvibes Feeds Reader à la "Google Reader": 4*/5

ALL FEED is a clever Widget that will allow you to read all your Feeds in a single module.

Created by Twisterss ( Tristan Groléat), a joung and brillant widget producer (Automatic Parser 5* and Web Page Plus 5*) with ALL FEEDS you will be able also to read only the feeds of any of your individual Tab.

It is the Netvibes version of the Google Reader.

You can select:
- title
- Number of columns to display the content: 1-5
- choose the feeds from any of your Tabs or ALL of them
- to show the unread count
- Number of items to display : up to 50
and the usual opens on the site, more details and post date

The Feeds that are in your Tab or in all your page are automatically sudcribed by the ALL FEEDS widget but if you want to unsuscribe any of them, you have to find on by one the Tab where you charged them and manually delete them.

To install this Widget that has to be inlined in the Netvibes system you need to precisly follow the instructions:
1) Go to Add Content / Essential Widgets and find UWA MODULE
2) click edit copy and paste this addres: http://twisterss.free.fr/api_netvibes/allFeeds/allFeeds.htm
3) check the option "inline this widget"
4) close edit
5) Add the Widget to your page.

HOW it could be Improved ?

As ALL FEEDS reads only the feeds that you have already on your Netvibes page/tab it is a double service for the numereous persons that like the Google way to the feeds (I am not ;) ).

Probably with a widget like this you would need a much higher limit of posts than the current 50... because if you follow let's say 10 blogs or news you could only show 5 for each.


NetEx RATING: 4****/5

A Useful Widget if you like the Google Reader approach with a plus as you can have more columns to read your favorite blogs.

But, if you could add Feeds directly in the Widget and if you could operate there some filtering, then I would be obliged to give it a 5*****.

I have add it in my list of REALLY Essential Widgets on my Universe.
But only works in your private Page.

My Community: Another Really Essential Widget for Netvibes

Now that all Netvibes users are upgrading to the Ginger release, let's examine the MY COMMUNITY widget created by the Netvibes team.

The idea is to get connected to your Friends by showing in real time your Friends activities, your own public activities and having a view over who are your friends and who is following you.

The real plus offered by Netvibes is that you can star (Share as favorite) and comment also the activities of your friends !! (and not only your news feeds). That way all your friends and followers will see it and, if they want, they can also share it with others ...

You can also copy/paste in the writing box and that is cool if you need a "specific" text and you can also write url that will open in a new page. That is useful if you want to give a link to another page. Images and other contnent can only be sent by their url.

As you can see from the capture you have limited editing possibilities.

What could be improved is to give the user the possibility :

1. to star also the Friends' Update : if George wrotes: "I am a new Dad" well it could be useful to be able to share it as favorite to "send it" to other friends that perhaps are not connected with George
2. to send a message to your own private activity: If I want to write : "Send a bottle to George but not the same as the one for peter" I do not want to show that to all ;)
3. to reply to someone with @name and not show that in the profile (is not a statement)
4. to have an option for a larger window to write text
5. to have an empty option to have an empty window
6. to mix my own public activities with my friends' one: it is easier to follow discussions
7. to add an image in the field (like in Twitxr.com), not just an image url as now.
8. to be able to import here other Social Messaging activities like Twitter. A special little icon would signify that a friend messaging me is not from Netvibes, but with an option I could answer him from Netvibes. That way I will have just one Social messaging tool.
9. to modify the icon of the message sender to know if it is a Friend or a Follower (perhaps with a different border or size) : if you have many friends and followers, very often they are not the same, you could reply to persons that do not see your messages :(
   
10. to change name of the widget.

MORE GENERAL REQUEST concerning Activities:

1. I would like to come back to a way to have 2 separate activities fields: private and public. In Beta there was an option to move an activity from private to public and viceversa and I liked it. It was opening new ways to use Netvibes and the Web ;)
2. Would be nice to be able to message directly to Friend or follower, not in public
   

NetEx rating : 4****/5

An essential widget that works immediatly and that allows you to really benefit from the social side of Netvibes.

I have add it in my list of REALLY Essential Widgets on my Universe, but the full version is only available in the personal page.

This widgets comes now as default in Ginger (the new version of Netvibes) but if you need another copy, you can get it from: Add Content/Assential Widgets/My Community

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.
  

WEB PAGE PLUS: a 5star widget to get just the piece of page you need in your Netvibes

If you want to have on your Netvibes page just a part of a Web Page and you are not able to get it with the Automatic Parser, you still have a chance to get it with the new WEB PAGE PLUS.

This Widget has also been created by Twisterss in just 2 hours !! as I was reviewing his excellent Automatic Parser Widget,

It is inspired by the WEB PAGE widget, one of the Essential Widgets of Netvibes that offers you the possibility to "import" an all specified Web page by just getting its web http address (url).
But where is the adventage to have an all page in your own Netvibes page ? And what if you just need, as all of us, just a small part of the page, not the ads, nor the index or the pictures but just one piece of "preciuos data"?

"The Web Page Plus widget is an UWA widget that makes exactly the same things as the Web Page widget in essential widgets of netvibes, except that it can save your position in the displayed web page to go back to this position when it is reloaded."

It allows you to create really easily widgets that display the part of the web page you want.

Let's say you are interested in Space and you like the NASA web site .

But you like the Nasa's VIDEOS and you want it in your Netvibes without the Top header and the left header (see first image). The Automatic Parser is not working (javascript code or else) so you take your Web Page Plus widget and you put the Url. then you scroll right and down untill the part of page is ok , you choose the size of the widget and, before leaving, YOU SAVE.

Then every time you come back your widget will just positionned where you left it, ready to work for you. (here on the right)


Rating: 5*****/5 for an effective Widget that can be used everywhere !

Defintively to be added to my collection of REALLY ESSENTIAL WIDGETS that you can check in my Netvibes' Universe.

Only BUG but not coming from the Widget but from Netvibes' Ginger is the impossibility, at the moment, to transfer the Widget with my settings (Url, size, scrolls) to other people.

For future uses, a width size will be perhaps needed.

You can get this well done widget here:



or on Twisterss Universe or in the Netvibes Ecosystem.