Netvibes Promises ‘Write Once, Run Everywhere’

Netvibes, the most popular startup in the personalized start page space, has just launched a universal widget API.

The enhanced widget API, dubbed The Universal Widget API (UWA), will enable developers to create widgets not only for Netvibes but for any other Personalized Homepage in town. While the previous version of the API just let you build modules for Netvibes the current version impose no such restrictions, thanks to the open source Javascript runtime. The Netvibes UWA can easily be ported to any platform online and offline alike.

This is a win for both users and developers. Users could use any UWA widget on any platform, whereas developers could write a code once and port it to a large number of platforms.

Some sample widgets could be viewed here. A minor drawback is the fact that widgets maintain their Netvibish look and feel on other platforms as well, something that i expect to change in the future.

Netvibes has promised developers what Java once did ‘write once, run everywhere’ and similarly i expect this startup and their platform to be huge.

MySpace Launching Social News Service

In the second quarter of 2007 MySpace will launch MySpace News a social news aggregator much like Digg. According to Terry Heaton, it would include:

- MySpace News takes News to a whole new level by dynamically aggregating real-time news and blogs from top sites around the Web
- Creates focused, topical news pages that users can interact and engage with throughout their day
- MySpace is making the news social, allowing users to:
Rate and comment on every news item that comes through the system
Submit stories they think are cool and even author pieces from their MySpace blog
- MySpace users previously had to leave the site to find comprehensive news, gossip, sporting news, etc. With MySpace News, we bring the news to them!

MySpace acquired Newroo, a real time news aggregator startup in the beginning of 2006. This might just be the re-incarnation of Newroo. MySpace´s entry into this segment would certainly mean bad news not only for startups like Digg but also for big Media Corps like USAToday. Another possible outcome of this could be the acquisition of Digg by some Media Corp.

When internet entities like MySpace enter into Media business, the pure Media companies are left with no choice but to build their own social networks. This is exactly whats USAToday is upto lately.

Mashable thinks this would create a social news site dominated by celebrity gossip(which is world´s most important news to MySpace demography). Techcrunch thinks News Corp would use this to promote their own stories which is not what MySpace users want.

Google Finance Integrates With Google Video

Although meager in comparison to Yahoo Finance and CNN Money, Google Finance still kicks ass. Today the Google Finance team has announced two important new features.

First one is the integration of Google Video from places such as Reuters and Forbes. The second one being the ability to plot extended hour pricing on charts, apparently this is the only feature of its kind in the market.

If 2006 was the year of rapid new product launches for Google, 2007 seems to be the year of product integration and consolidation. Lets see what other services they integrate next.

AskCity Launches Major Usability Enhancements to Local Search

Ask´s local search offering AskCity has released a revolutionary usability enhancement in local search. The new tools enables users to specify their search area by drawing an arbitrary line or shape on the map. This is localized search using an extremely usable interface.

A typical local search asks the user to enter the zip code or street name as a central point along which the search for points of interests would be conducted. Users have the choice to limit the search 3,5, or 10 miles of along the radius of this central point. In case you are at the edge of a zip code or wants to search on the edge of a large street, you will most likely be disappointed by the results. However with the new feature the latitude and longitude of the search area is determined entirely by the user graphical, thus eliminating the problems mentioned above.

A very nice and radical improvement by the AskCity team, keep up with the experiments. Also see Nial Kennedy´s take on this.

Yahoo Answers Transforming Into a Social Network

Yahoo Answers that dominates that QnA market segment has added a new feature, the Answer Network.

According to Yahoo this would be a way to fight spam, and filter and delete abuse on the site, which off course has been a problem lately. Users can now build a network of “Contacts” on Answers who share similar passions and interests by moving the mouse over their avatar and clicking “Add to My Contact”. Any new content from the contacts would then appear in User´s home page and profile page.

This will certainly minimize spam or at least would highlight better and knowledgeable users from spammers.

Other possible moves in this direction could be to integrate Yahoo Answers with 360, (Yahoo´s social network service) and Yahoo Messenger to enable users on Yahoo Answers to chat with each other without leaving the Answers site. Google has already integrated Google Talk with Orkut, lets see how long will it take Yahoo to follow suit.