Make the web work for you

With more than 183 million websites the internet has become mind-boggingly vast. Here are some sites to help you set up your own little corner in the world wide web.

iGoogle

Google lets internet users create their own homepages that incorporate its world-famous search engine. iGooglers can choose one of five themes, embed YouTube videos on their page, view Gmail messages, get weather and news updates and store bookmarks of their favourite sites.

iGoogle's canvas view gadgets feature lets users click on "gadgets" on their page such as their Gmail gadget, to get a full screen view of the content without having to navigate to a different page.

Users can also drag and drop content to move it around their page, making it very customisable. Users wanting to access their iGoogle from multiple computers will need a Google account. Reviewers say iGoogle is simple to use and has a clean feel.

My Yahoo

Users of Yahoo services such as news and email should find My Yahoo useful. As with iGoogle, users can search the web, display weather, news, sharemarket updates and check their (Yahoo) email account from the page.

They can also add a RSS feed - which provides updates from all their favourite sites in one window - and dress up their page in multiple-themed colour schemes. Reviewers say My Yahoo has a more modern feel than iGoogle and is more advanced than iGoogle in terms of customisation options.

However, they say Yahoo's search engine is inferior to Google's, and the service's advertising (ads and banners) can be a bit intrusive. Users will need a Yahoo! ID to sign up to My Yahoo.

Netvibes

A very popular homepage choice, Netvibes comes ready-made with a bunch of features. Built-in features include a RSS feed reader, local weather forecasts, a calendar supporting the Mac calendar application iCal, bookmarks, notes, to-do lists, multiple search engines and email modules for several email providers including Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.

Those after more features, can pick and choose modules from the Netvibes Ecosystem - a collection of user-submitted applications. Netvibes also has a built-in audio player so users can listen to podcasts. Reviewers say Netvibes' customisation is difficult to beat. Users will need to register with an email address and password first.

Pageflakes

Reviewers say Pageflakes is quite similar to Netvibes. Users can add their own feed subscriptions, email applications, weather updates and bookmarks. Its pagecasts feature lets them share their own page or pages and other content with other members.

Users can add flakes or modules to their pages, such as a Facebook application that provides activity updates from the social networking site, and a universal news search flake that lets them search multiple online news sources from the one place. Flakes can be dragged and dropped around the page for extra customisation.

Users need to register their full name, email address and password.

Windows Live

Windows Live is a handy service if you have a Hotmail email account and are a regular user of Microsoft's MSN instant messaging service.

Users can see email activity, updates from friends on the Windows Live network, store photos and documents, set up a profile, see weather updates and the latest news from MSNBC.

While these services are useful, reviewers say those looking for more customisation options should move to other homepage services that let third-party developers create software and applications for them.

Sources: AppAppeal,  Mashable, Google, Yahoo!, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Microsoft, Verisign.

- © Fairfax NZ News