I had originally had a article I was working on in the WP admin panel but I got stuck after while and wasn’t sure what to do. Basically, it was an article about being able to take your workspace with you. At least if you’re a blogger and want to be able to read your newsfeeds wherever you are and make blogs if you stop off at a netcafe or something.

I’d looked at the uses of iGoogle, then Netvibes, then using a U3 drive in conjunction with one of them and some portable applications that would work well. But… I still felt as though they were still a pain in the arse to use across the board. I started on iGoogle (before they called it iGoogle), then switched to Netvibes when I found that. Found it was a bit heavy to use on my computer, looked at using the U3 drive I bought last year and came to the conclusion that it’s all just to hard. Theres a plethora of web based applications, portable applications and normal desktop software that all do these things. But who wants to have 5 or 6 programs to run your work from? Not me. One place, all centralised will be the ultimate. While I’ll keep my storage to the desktop for large files and development work, and my iRiver X20 for taking around my music collection with me. I still want that one place that’s centralised.

Looking on the internet I found some great stuff, and what I’d like to see is someone grab iGoogle, Netvibes, RoundCube, Essential PIM and Backpackit, then mash it all together in some software that either someone can run from their own domain on the internet. An intranet portal, or off a USB drive. Flat file would do it perfectly. But for now, I’ll keep dreaming or save money and have someone do it for me!

I went back to Netvibes again and wondered how I could optimise it for my computer. So I made tabs, I’m not a huge in browser tabs, but it’s starting to grow on me. I’ve got a few of them so I thought I’d break it down as to what I’m using them for, and yes; iGoogle has them but Netvibes just has more useful tools.

The Organiser Tab - On here is my general use modules.

1. My bookmarks I use regularly are here web based so I can access them from home and work, and not need to add them at both places. It’s all stored under my netvibes account

2. A calendar module I can enter my important dates into, the date is highlighted blue for when something is on that date, and also small notes for what’s happening Today, Tomorrow and on the Weekend. No need for going into a Calender like on Google Gcal to add a date quickly (from the add-ins I tried on iGoogle). Just enter it and you’re done.

3. My address book is my most wanted tool, it could do with some fine tuning but it suits me for what I was after. First name, Last name, postal address, mobile phone, home phone, work phone, fax, email and alternate email address, company name etc, its got all the essentials and stores it all for me and it’s accessible through the module.

4. Email - Netvibes give the ability to add either your Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, MacMail, Hotmail or POP3 account to alert you when you have new mail. Just like the Gmail plugin does on iGoogle but with any account you have. All my pop3 mail redirects to my Gmail anyway and is labelled inside for convenience. Good if you have a lot of administrator email accounts on websites like I do.

5. Weather modules - We’ve all got one of these, it gives me a 4 day forecast or a 10 day if I click the link. Good at a glance as looking out the window doesn’t always tell you there’s some big black clouds over the ocean.

6. To-Do List, I use this pretty often. If I don’t make a list of things to do I’ll forget them so I’m forever adding my daily/weekly/monthly to-do’s in here. You can tick them off once you’ve completed them.

7. Webnotes - Much like the “Sticky Notes” on iGoogle but not such a pain in the back to use. I’ve pasted links from web browsing in there and it picks it up as a link. It doesn’t float around on the screen and I have to be forever moving it to get to things I want behind it. Just put some text in and its there! BAM!

Organiser Screenshot

Newsfeeds/Blog Tab - My daily reads.

On here is pretty self explanitory, I have all my newsfeeds in the one tab I can access. Here I’ve got the most recent articles to The Simple Dollar, Digg, Zenhabits, Lifehack, Lifehacker, ITV Formula One, AutoBlog, Gomestic and TorrentSpy. I can adjust how many articles I want the headlines for from 1 to 20. I keep them all to about 5 or so then the boxes stay nice and neat and don’t make me scroll far down.

Also, if I select an article to read it goes into it’s own window inside Netvibes with a list of all the other articles down the side so I can browse them too. No need to go to another window or to the site unless you want to.

Newsfeeds/Blog Tab Screenshot

University Tab - Keeping track of what I never get time to do

While I don’t go to University, I study through a government supplied third party place, or something like that But on here I’ve got myself another Webnote Module, and another To-Do Module. Being able to create multiples is great, I have a To-Do List of my assignments due (way overdue) and other bits and pieces I need to look up. Ticking them when I’ve completed them and deleting them when I’ve handed them up. I’m sure theres other applications you can add in there but thats all I need for the moment and it’s separate from the other tabs.

Newsfeeds/Blog Tab Screenshot

My ‘Other’ Tab - All the random stuff

On here at the moment is only one thing, my eBay Module. It shows me when auctions are running out on the most current ones.

Don’t think that’s all there is. In the corner is a link for “Add/Browse Content”, clicking this reveals a popout with all sorts of links to content. If you’re a little more into the social networking then theres more modules for places like Flickr, Myspace, Blogmarks, Delicious, Twitter and Craigs List. Fox Sports Video, AOL Video, YouTube, image searches, blog searches, web searches, the list goes on! and I haven’t even made it to their ‘EcoSystem’ yet where all the 3rd party modules are made.

Other Tab Screenshot

There’s also more feeds than you can poke a stick at all nicely categoried under topics and subtopics for you to add to your feeds of information. It’s a little heavier to load but if you’re like me and use the tools regularly enough you will stick to Netvibes as it’s a lot more practical. The only downside, Google’s the most powerful search engine around and you’ll always be loading Google up to search. There is a search Module but I don’t like it, but for now I use a link in my bookmarks to Google

Check out Netvibes, it’s worth that one email for membership even to check it out. Best of all it’s totally free!