The Next Thing

While it is really difficult to predict technology waves and everyone wants to be the person who bought cassettes not 8-tracks, dodged LaserDiscs, and bought a “pc clone” back when they were still called that. (Those are all old, I don’t even know what today’s equivalents would be.)

You heard it hear first: personalized homepages are the next thing for web users. I know, it’s not really new. But Google is working on theirs (www.google.com/ig) and I just started using it. Today I found Microsoft’s subtly named (and essentially un-promoted) www.start.com. Eerily similar. Looks smart and easy to use. Want a block of information in a different column, just drag it. Want more content that we don’t already have listed as an option for you? (and this is the part that is really the most new) just add it yourself by searching, plugging in a webpage, or even a feed (Google likes RSS & pre-release ATOM spec).

Finally, an easy place to store all the places I visit and read from regularly. Plus it even shows the latest articles, Google will show my search history (including remembering what you did and didn't click on...), and Google builds in my Gmail account (one would hope that start.com will work with Hotmail either already or soon). This is technology I can get behind.