The verdict
The four sites fall into two distinct pairs, with Netvibes and Pageflakes making up the funky, community-enhanced, highly customisable couple. Their prettied-up tabs load dynamically, they offer the most tweaking options and they have huge libraries of widgets that can be added in one step. Their help files are comprehensive and the community aspect allows sharing at a variety of levels.
Live.com and iGoogle are the pared-back, less-flexible duo. They focus on offerings from within their own brand and offer fewer customisation options. Their help sections are sparse, and the community element is either difficult to navigate (Live.com) or non-existent (iGoogle).
Overall conclusion? For a start page with the most flexibility -- and the least need to navigate elsewhere -- go for Pageflakes or Netvibes. These sites allow you to view feed content in full without having to go to the original site. The only downside of this is that the content can sometimes get mangled on the way -- especially when it involves elements such as polls.
As for the winner of the Netvibes versus Pageflakes smackdown, it's an incredibly close contest. We'd be happy to use either on a daily basis, but Netvibes just edges out Pageflakes due to its podcast player, wealth of customisation options, and the sheer ease of adding content. That said, if your focus is on RSS feeds rather than widgets, you may prefer Pageflakes' reader option and elegant, image-enhanced handling of feed summaries.
#1 Netvibes
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| Good for: People with short attention spans who want everything on one page. Widget fiends. Those looking to consolidate all their Web 2.0 profiles (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr). Anyone wanting to maintain separate public and private pages. | |
#2 Pageflakes
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| Good for: RSS addicts who like their feeds to look nicer than your average text-fest. Anyone looking to establish a group to share pages with. People who want the most widgets to choose from. | |
#3 iGoogle
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| Good for: Google disciples. Those not fussed by aesthetics. People who want to glance at the latest headlines and updates but not necessarily read the content behind them. | |
#4 Live.com
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| Good for: Windows Vista/MSN/Hotmail devotees. People who want simplicity. | |








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