Personalized web page startup Pageflakes is running out of cash and is desperately seeking a buyer reports Gigaom. Pageflakes aggregates RSS feeds and widgets in a customizable AJAX-based personal web page.
Pageflakes has around 1.5 million visitors a month and over 200,000 registered users. However that pales in comparison to their closest pure competitor Netvibes. However, the real competitors are Google’s iGoogle, Yahoo’s 360, Microsoft and AOL which too offer personalized web pages. The cost of these services is borne by their core offerings.
However, Pageflakes’s personalized More»

Labels: iGoogle, Microsoft, personalization, Web Apps, Yahoo

A European Commission advisory body on data protection has said that search engines should delete data held about their users within six months reports the BBC.
The proposed rule specifieds that “Search engine providers must delete or irreversibly anonymise personal data once they no longer serve the specified and legitimate purpose they were collected for.”
Google and Yahoo anonymise user data after 18 months and MSN does the same after 13 months. The body said search companies were not “clear enough” on their data protection policy and the recommendation More»

Labels: Microsoft, Online Advertising, personalization, Privacy, Search, Yahoo

I recently met Tariq Krim, Netvibes Founder and CEO. The company has just come out with the next gen of their personalized homepage Netvibes Ginger. This is a private beta release of the service; general availability for all users is expected in mid-Feb.
As described on the site, with the beta, users can “create and personalize a netvibes Universe page just for yourself or publish one for your friends, family, everyone! A Universe is your very own personal dashboard that’s updated live directly from all your favorite Web services (email, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, More»

Labels: personalization, web 2.0, websites, widgets

Upping the ante on personalization, Google is now allowing users to customize and personalize their iGoogle homepage even further. The company yesterday announced the release of the iGoogle Themes API along with a themes directory. The Themes API allows users to either create their own new theme or select from a user-generated one. Users can create a theme and share it with the tens of millions of iGoogle users around the world.

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Labels: google, personalization

Online activist, MoveOn.org, has launched a campaign against Facebook citing the social networking site has violated the privacy of its users by making their transactions public. Facebook is accused of using web beacons to make users’ purchase information available on partner sites via their friends’ News Feeds which means that others can see your purchases from online retailers, movie rentals, etc. MoveOn has setup an online petition for people to sign and a Facebook group, Petition: Facebook, stop invading my privacy!, for users to show their displeasure with this practice. More»

Labels: Facebook, online security, personalization, Privacy

Google is using YouTube to post videos that explain how, when, and why they collect information about searches, and how you can protect your privacy while using our search engine.
In the first video, you can learn about some of the information collected eg. IP addresses, cookies, and search queries and how they this information is used to improve your search experience as well as prevent against fraud and other abuses.
Google’s search algorithms are designed to take your personal preferences into account, including More»

Labels: Online Advertising, personalization, Privacy, Search Tools

Google’s Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience, officially announced yesterday at the Searchnomics 2007 Conference the launch of Google Gadget Ventures. Members of the press including ABC7 News were on hand to get the breaking news scoop. Marissa introduced the program during her closing Keynote address. If you are familiar with the personalized Google homepage, iGoogle, where users can add widgets/gadgets created by others or better yet create your own personalized gadgets, then this program is a spinoff of this. If your More»

Labels: iGoogle, Marissa Mayer, personalization, Searchnomics