Take 1: Pageflakes

Sick of that boring ol’ MSN default home page? I was, too. And now, Pageflakes is there to remedy that.

Pageflakes is part of a new wave of websites; it is a personalized web page which is capable of delivering RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndicator). Of course, that’s just a really vague description; in reality it can deliver live news, give you a new comic strip of your choice everyday, give you the weather, save notes that you type up, and much, much more. Asides from its RSS abilities, it can also broadcast podcasts, allow you to play simple games, and a lot more. Move aside, MSN. Heck, move aside, Toronto Star.

Pageflakes focuses on you. Or me. Or whoever the user happens to be; and I like that! The material on its website can be modified to suit the user’s needs, which is what it needs to survive in this new web. And you can take it with you everywhere you go, as long as you register on its website. Alas, if you have a laptop you might not have that problem, but it’s still a convenience for many users.

Pageflakes is pretty user-friendly; deleting a page turned out to be surprisingly tough though (go to share, then delete page). It’s a minor problem, and besides, all websites have its flaws (err…most of ‘em anyway).

Pageflakes also has an RSS reader integrated into it. Wait, what’s an RSS reader? An RSS reader is a program that is capable of receiving live news feeds called RSS feeds. Not all websites have RSS feeds though; a website will have a bright orange RSS button; click on that, and copy and paste the URL from that page into your RSS reader to add a feed. Anyhow, usually, these RSS readers are standalone programs, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I realized that there was a RSS reader that could be available via any web browser. Now, that’s convenient!

Pageflakes is a decent addition to the web; I highly suggest taking a look and playing around with the “flakes”, which are little programs that do simple tasks, such as calculate or save notes, or even play games (they’re much like “gadgets” at live.com). Heck, before you know it, Pageflakes will be set as your homepage too.