Pageflakes

Pageflakes uses "flakes", which are similar to widgets or web modules. These flakes may be organized in just about any way on a page or pages. There are thousands of pre-made flakes which may be incorporated on pages. What I really like is that any RSS feed may be turned into its own flake. There even is a module for individual users to make their own flakes. There is also a social networking community behind Pageflakes. Individuals may share their pages with others publically, or view and comment on other pages. While I may do some of that in the future, right now I'm concentrating more on organizing my own ideas.

Here are some key features that I find valuable with Pageflakes:

• I can create flakes for each set of del.icio.us links I follow from other users. I've placed them all on the same page and can quickly scan to see whether there is something new of interest.
• Similarly, I can pull RSS feeds of the blogs and web content I most often follow into individual flakes, placing them all on the same page. I can set each flake to set a certain number of headlines (such as 5), and then scan these favorites all at once from the same page.
• OK....this is fluff...but there are many more design themes from which to choose on Pageflakes than on iGoogle. In fact, those that are creative may easily develop their own themes. In addition, I can set different themes on different pages. For instance, my page for baseball information has some beautiful green grass as its theme right now.
• Any iCal calendar with a unique Internet address may be pulled in to a flake. My family uses Airset for scheduling, and that calendar may be imported into Pageflakes. In addition, email headers may be pulled as well from just about any popular service as well as POP accounts.
• I find the Pageflakes format easier to use than iGoogle. Some of that might be personal preference, but I also believe that the model of flakes is easier to use and more flexible than what is currently offered by Google.

Probably the only drawback that I see is the amount of time that it takes to get all the information organized just the way one wants. However, this is a small investment compared to the increased flexibility to view important information in a useful way.

Give it a try and let us all know what you think by sharing a comment to this post.