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Head to head: building a better start page

PC Plus — 1210686648

The meaning of the term “home page” seems to be in constant flux.

These days it’s the page your browser shows when you start it up; usually a branded search tool. Back in the web’s equivalent of the stone age it was a bespoke start page, built in static HTML, mixing up biographical information with the owner’s favourite links.

Over the years, search engines have become more and more elaborate, evolving into "portals". These were bloated sites that aggregated directories full of content and news, intended to replace the home page as your browser’s default destination.

To this day, many ISPs maintain their own portals and re-route your browser to them after installing them on your PC. You don’t have to put up with it though.

Personalised web pages made easy

The last few years have seen a new wave of start page providers enabling you to create your own default destinations, packed with content of specific interest to you.

Of course, start page personalisation isn’t a new idea. Yahoo! did it back in the late 90s, enabling you to create a portal page displaying custom subjects and Yahoo! tools. The real breakthrough came with the popularisation of RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

RSS is a technology that enables content providers to add headlines to a machine readable "feed" – an XML file that can be frequently updated, but is always found at the same URL.

From Google to iGoogle

The growth of feed-powered start pages has been most noticeable in the last two or three years, following tight on the heels of iGoogle. Leading players such as Netvibes and Pageflakes were both launched in 2005.

iGoogle is a free service open to all Google subscribers allowing you to personalise the search engine’s start page with building blocks containing RSS feed-powered headlines.

You sign in with your Google ID and click “Add Stuff” to look through the content - news feeds, to do lists, countdown clocks, quotes, games and tools. Google categorises site feeds for easy browsing – or you can keyword search for specific sites.

When you find what you’re after, clicking the ‘Add it Now’ button places a content block on your iGoogle page. iGoogle and other personal start pages don’t confine themselves to simple RSS, however.

The age of the 'widget'

Mini applications, called ‘gadgets’ in iGoogle and ‘widgets’ just about everywhere else, use web scripting to provide plug-in tools for your start page. For example, you could add an application that gives you a Wikipedia search box or shows the weather forecast for your local area.

Other tools include constantly updating departure boards for train services, driving direction calculators and currency converters. Google provides you with all the tools required to build your own gadgets at Google Code.

The process is straightforward. Google Gadgets Editor is a simple script-editing window with an XML framework already in place. All you have to do is replace the "Hello World" code placeholder with your own HTML.

For example, to create a gadget that searches the Internet Movie Database, you could navigate to the IMDb's Help page and copy the search form code from one of the examples given.

Return to Google Gadget Editor and paste the code between the CDATA brackets. Save the XML snippet and you’ll then be given a URL for your new gadget.

Choose ‘Publish’ instead to add the code to your iGoogle page or add it to the iGoogle directory so others can use it.

What about DIY start pages?

If creating gadgets or widgets is so easy, why not build your own start page from scratch? While it’s certainly possible, the simplicity offered by modern start page providers makes it a rather time consuming proposition in comparison.

For example, it requires a lot of code to embed a single RSS block in a web page, although there are off-the-shelf scripts that can help facilitate this and even some online services that generate the layout code for you.

JavaScript RSS Block Viewer generates cut-and- paste code you can plug into any site – static or dynamic. All you have to do is provide the RSS feed and choose a colour scheme.

If you need more control then MagpieRSS is a server side PHP script that parses RSS feeds.

Once the script is installed, you can add specific feeds to a page with as few as two lines – though it gets much more complex if you want to style headlines, titles and links separately or filter a feed using specific parameters.

Looking beyond the Google heartland

While these solutions simplify the task of adding RSS blocks to a page for a code-savvy developer, neither compares with the ease of adding bespoke blocks to a page in Netvibes or Protopage.

In addition, the current crop of start pages have features that your Heath Robinson version may struggle to compete with. Most services enable alternate layouts to be used and custom skins that change the look and feel of the page.

Netvibes, iGoogle and Pageflakes provide themes that let you change the overall look of the layout. You can also almost universally change the position of content blocks in your bespoke start page and create multiple, tabbed pages to organise different types of content.

For example, you could have a default front page full of news feeds, with tabs that take you to a page full of handy gadgets or blog content. Start pages help you get more from your web browsing by bringing together the information you access most often into one place.

The only drawback is that your choice might make content so easy to find that you’ll spend even more time online.

The best start pages on the web

Pageflakes - This site wins the award for getting your web experience personalised in the fastest time. You just make a few category selections and a page is created from scratch.

Slick and great looking, it’s not quite as clever as you might hope, though. While your approximate location is estimated from your IP address and used to set a weather widget – the default news feeds are always from CNN and USA Today.

There’s a lack of RSS search tools too. Create a free account and you can soon customise the site’s defaults to suit your own preferences. Of the tools we’ve reviewed, Pageflakes has the fanciest features for browsing content.

Widgets and feeds are called ‘Flakes’ here and you can browse for them in a window that pops up in the main page. As well as private start pages, you can also make ‘Pagecasts’. These are public versions of your private start page.

There are an impressive number of themes and layouts too. Our favourite feature though is PageFlake’s built-in feed reader – a tool that behaves like a desktop RSS client.

Netvibes - After a swift sign-up, Netvibes’ distinctly Web 2.0 style layout is yours to populate and customise.

Three starter tabs offer up news feeds, access to social networks, webmail and some online games. Just a dozen alternate themes are provided – alongside custom headings called ‘wallpaper’.We found that selecting some of these effectively hides the service’s navigation tools, though.

There’s an impressive selection of feeds, site gateways and applications that can be added to any page. RSS feeds can be added as direct URLs. Widgets are created using Netvibes’ own Ecosystem platform, an XML-based framework for building mini-applications. Most users will find everything they’ll need is offered by Netvibes from the start.

Currently, Netvibes is beta testing an expanded service, codenamed Netvibes Ginger. This enables you to share your start pages with other users – even adding content from other services like Facebook and Flickr. This brings the ‘home page’ analogy full circle.

iGoogle - Like most Google services, iGoogle’s main selling point is apparent simplicity. The page offers customisable content blocks containing either RSS headlines or Google Gadgets. These are easy to organise using tabs and drag-and- drop enclosures.

While other start page products give you rounded corners and reflective colour schemes, iGoogle opts for plain, CSS-styled blocks with controls for closing, minimising or editing individual settings for each.

You can always change how many headlines are displayed in an RSS feed, while gadgets may have their own bespoke settings. Tabs are really easy to add with an ‘Add Tab’ link.

You can drag feeds and gadgets between tabs or add new content when a specific page is selected.

For us, the most attractive aspect of iGoogle is that it offers gadgets for other Google tools, enabling you to keep tabs on your mail, add events to Google Calendar or consult current documents – all without leaving your start page.

24 Eyes - 24 Eyes feels like a start page for serious web users – but it’s less personalised than other entries. While Pageflakes and Netvibes place ease of use and good looks up front, 24 Eyes is all about functionality – there are no themes or colour scheme tools.

So, while 24 Eyes isn’t as pretty as its rivals, it does have functions like tagging, built-in RSS search (missing from Pageflakes) and public ‘RSS dashboards’ – which are start pages to you and me.

Uniquely, 24 Eyes doesn’t require registration to start using. There are a series of ready-to-use dashboard tabs that you can edit or remove. Your changes are saved in cookies – so as long as you access the site in the same browser each time your alterations will stick.

Of course, this does mean that your start page isn’t portable across platforms or accessible from your local web cafe. Still, there are localised versions for the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands – so you don’t necessarily have to start with a bunch of American content you have absolutely no interest in.

Microsoft WorldWide Telescope now active

Marc Chacksfield — 1210680540

Pushing the possibilities of Web 2.0 to infinity and beyond, Microsoft Research has launched WWT, a visualisation software environment that changes your computer into a virtual telescope.

In essence, what the WorldWide Telescope allows you to do is explore space through different views and perspectives, while learning about various aspects of the night sky at the same time.

Space tours

The site also offers free guided tours by astronomers, or you can go off and explore ‘virtual’ space on your own, via the seamless panning and zooming options – providing your computer is up to it.

Microsoft is claiming to have terabytes of digitised information that makes up its virtual space; this has been taken from various sources over the internet.

The software is based on 16 years of work begun by the late computer scientist Jim Gray who was an integral part of Microsoft Research, right up until his death in January 2007. The WorldWide Telescope is dedicated to him.

Google Earth competitor

The WorldWide Telescope looks likely to be a direct competitor to Google Earth’s Sky application. At first glance it seems to have better imagery and interaction than Google’s star-gazer, but only time will tell if it becomes just as popular.

Has HBO deal changed iTunes for good?

Patrick Goss — 1210678920

HBO has reportedly agreed a deal with Apple to sell their programmes at a flexible rate on iTunes – which could spell the beginning of new flexibility from the online store.

Time Warner owned broadcaster HBO are already embracing VOD and an agreement with Apple to sell their shows at flexible price points marks a major departure from the norm.

One size fits all

Apple had previously stuck to their rigid ‘one size fits all’ pricing insisting that it was to prevent confusion for their users, a policy that had left broadcasters resistant to the service.

However, if the HBO deal is confirmed it could herald a new era for the iTunes store – already the market leader in online music sales and pushing aggressively into the video market.

Another major US station – NBC – pulled its programmes from iTunes last year because of the pricing policy, but they may well make a return and the UK audience may see an increase in domestic TV stations willing to sell their wares.

Twitter first to report on China’s earthquake

Marc Chacksfield — 1210671240

Twitter, the super-quick communication service, was used to great effect on Monday, after China was hit with its worst earthquake for more than 30 years.

Users of Twitter broke the news that the province of Sichuan had been subject to an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. They sent information via text messages, updating on reports throughout the day.

This is not the first time that citizen journalism has taken such a role in newsgathering on a major incident – the 7 July bombings in London is another case in point – but there was a definite shift in how the internet helped with supplying information about the quake to the rest of the world.

Regular updates

It wasn’t just Twitter, either, that continuously documented what was happening. The Guardian opened up its blogs to any information about the incident, while Global Voice Online collated various videos and articles that had been uploaded to the web.

Video-upload site YouTube also saw an influx of user-generated videos taken of the aftermath of the devastation that has left over 20,000 people dead.

It was Shanghaaist, a website about Shanghaai, China, that was the most prolific of them all, however, according to the Telegraph. Its site was updated at least 90 times, as often as once a minute, informing readers constantly about the events.

High-speed data network hits 1,000km mark

J Mark Lytle — 1210655760

Sometimes it seems there are about as many ways to deliver super-high-speed data in laboratory conditions as there are stars in the sky, with all of them just about as unattainable right now.

That may change if we're to believe the claim from Japan's KDDI R&D Laboratories that it has a robust method for shooting 100Gbit/s of information across 1,000km of cabling [PDF link, Japanese].

Multiple streams

The telecoms firm has hit upon the idea of splitting digital information into 2,000 separate streams that can be sent separately along an optical fibre network at relatively low speeds.

This lower transmission rate per stream means the data doesn't have to be processed at regular intervals to remove the errors that creep in at higher speeds, so making a long-distance network practical.

KDDI says when it combined the 2,000 channels at the receiving end, the result was a flawless fat pipe of data delivering 100Gbit/s. The company hopes to have something ready for the world outside the labs within two to four years. After that, the stars.

Firefox 3.0 edges closer

Patrick Goss — 1210607580

Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox version 3 release candidate 1 will be available to the general public by the end of May, if no bugs are found in the final phase of testing.

Firefox 3.0 has been in beta for some time, but RC1 has now been released to QA and the end of May has been slated in for public release.

A post on the Mozilla blog said: “Thanks to all the hard work of the Mozilla community as of 9:15 AM PDT today we are code complete for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)…”

Late May

“QA will start their extensive RC1 test pass on Monday [May 12]. If all goes well we should have the Release Candidate publicly available in late May.

“RC1 is intended for wider scale public testing. Our 1.2M+ active beta users will automatically get updated to RC1 when it is released. If no new showstopper issues are found in RC1 it will become Firefox 3 final.

“ If we find any critical issues we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship.

Facebook asks for $100 million

Marc Chacksfield — 1210594440

In the space of four years, Facebook has grown from being a Harvard University web project to one of the biggest social-networks in the world. An explosive growth such as this is enough to give any CEO a nosebleed, especially when the cash coming in doesn’t quite cover the amount of servers needed to accommodate so much information.

That’s why, according to Business Week, Facebook has gone cap in hand to venture lenders and asked to borrow a hefty $100 million. That’s not counting the $370 million that the company has already raised in the last year.

Server space

It seems that more servers are needed as more people are signing up to the site. Current Facebook users are also eating away at vital server space by clicking yes on the various apps that are available, like the ones turning their online friends into vampires.

The cash will allow the company to buy a further 50,000 servers which is reportedly five times the amount it is using at the moment. Which is nothing compared to Google who reportedly houses a whopping 200,000 servers and still finds room for a gourmet restaurant on its grounds.

Google wants some friends

Marc Chacksfield — 1210590960

There’s rumblings everywhere web-wise – with Techcrunch being the epicentre – that Google is set to announce a rival to MySpace’s Data Availability project today.

The more user-friendly named Friend Connect sees the search engine giant tread a similar path to MySpace and its signed-up partner Yahoo. Friend Connect will essentially allow user information, such as profile data and status updates, to be synchronised across whichever third-party apps that sign up.

Data difference

The big problem that Google will come across is that the pool of information it has to delve into is a lot shallower compared to the like of MySpace that has millions of users’ details already on-hand.

Techradar.com has yet to hear back from Google regarding the impending launch but as soon as we hear something, as always you will be the first to know.

Search Wikipedia semantically

Patrick Goss — 1210588260

A semantic search tool for Wikipedia allows users to ask questions as they would another human being, rather than having to try to work out the easiest way to get to the information that they want.

Semantic search has become a major buzz word in the search industry as companies try to provide more accurate results for their users.

Currently search engines tend to look for the phrase or words and not the context of the question, occasionally making finding information tricky.

A question of semantics

However, a company called powerset believes that its semantic search of Wikipedia finally allows users to get to what they want.

Of course, with our research hats on we decided to give www.powerset.com a real work out and, we have to admit, that the results are far from shoddy.

Questions, questions

An easy starter for ten was ‘Who stars in NCIS?’ the popular US naval criminal television show, and we were indeed served with pictures of the recurring stars.

Second up, we wondered what the meaning of life was, and were told, little disappointingly that it was a 1983 Monty Python film and finally we found out that ‘god’ rules the world.

It’s a nice little tool and may well be an insight into the way we are searching in years to come.

Weekend round-up

Patrick Goss — 1210578480

It’s been a busy old weekend in the world of tech, but as usual we have scouted round to bring you the most vital (and quirky) stories from over the weekend.

Firstly, late on Friday Microsoft confirmed it would be appealing against the massive fine it has been hit with by the European Union for defying sanctions imposed after the anti-trust rulings.

The EU decided to hand Microsoft a whopping £680 million fine after deciding the Redmond company was guilty of not providing key code to rival software manufacturers.

Microsoft are seeking ‘clarity from the court’ in their appeal.

You’ve been iFramed

The most famous Mac thief was probably the Hamburgler, but running a close second is the fellow who got away with a lady’s MacBook only to be caught by the woman’s ingenuity.

Using her remote access to the Mac, the victim took a photo of the thief from her laptop and gave it to the police.

If it wasn’t for those pesky iKids…

Facebook ordered to out Fake Dean profile kids

Cyber-bullying of teachers is becoming an increasingly common problem, but in America, one educator who found himself on the wrong end of a fake Facebook profile has gone to court to get the social networking site to reveal the culprits.

The profile, which has since been removed, contained "pictures and messages inappropriate for a Dean of Students to send to a student."

Facebook have been ordered to retain the details of those that created the profile pending further investigation from the courts.

That's it for now, but stay tuned to TechRadar for the rest of the day's news as it breaks or grab a feed here - get it while it's hot.