Comments on: March Apps Mania – Start Pages (26)

By: A.J.

A.J. — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:34:49 +0000

I think it’s good that we can group all of the pages we use to help our patrons in one place, but I agree with the person that said they didn’t want to memorize one more password!

By: npljenny

npljenny — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:07:28 +0000

I agree with Crystal. Visiting all my favorite sites one by one is a hard habit to break! I’m trying to get back into using my RSS reader – it’s much easier now that I have so much useful stuff on iGoogle.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:45:45 +0000

Trying to get out of the habit of visiting each of my favorite sites separately, but its hard to break this habit. )

By: Cook

Cook — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:01:36 +0000

They have sort of buried this feature with their latest version.

Go to the Add Content box, Browse the ‘Essential Widgets,’ on the second page or so, there is one for Web Page. Add this widget, then set it for the site you want.

By: B.N. Jones

B.N. Jones — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:49:42 +0000

I took me awhile to find time to fiddle, but netvibes seems pretty cool. I’ll have to try it for a few days to see if it useful enough for me to stick with.

Someone needs to show me to configure the work email widget!

It would definitely be a help when working at non-designated workstations.

By: Glenn Worden

Glenn Worden — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:13:02 +0000

I have never used start pages, but they look like what we used to call portals. But the old portals of years ago never had access to all these nice widgets and modules. Now granted, I only spent a few minutes on each one, but Pageflakes was the only one I quickly and easily added local news. Weather was easy on all four.

I can certainly see why Kyle finds start pages useful as he switches from desk to desk. I was stuck on thinking about how staff would use start pages, but I like Jim and Anthony’s take on promoting this idea to our patrons that use Library computers all the time.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:09:53 +0000

Jim stole my answer.

At my branch, the patrons who regularly visit the library have specific wants from their internet experience. These homepages could streamline their visit and help to keep a higher percentage of public computers available.

By: Jim

Jim — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:16:52 +0000

I would think that libraries that have a lot of public computer use for quick access (you know, email, news, not play games all day) might find this stuff particularly useful. Patrons would get their news, time, weather, etc. along with what’s going on in the library or around town, all at login.

By: Jai

Jai — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:33:53 +0000

I love my iGoogle.

Netvibes is cool but it just doesn’t have something. I don’t know. I’m a fan of most things Google.

Jai

By: cassondra

cassondra — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:19:42 +0000

You know, I totally accessed this posting from my Google homepage. I’m not really sure how I managed to keep myself organized before it.

I might poke around some of those others, but since Google owns my life, I’ll prolly stick with them.

I think that pages like this are a great way to keep organized, and to keep a lot of information at your fingertips, which is *always* useful to librarians.