I’m a Netvibes junkie. I have over 10 tabs with 4 columns each, over 200 feeds in total and over 20 different modules on top. I don’t think it’s overkill. The whole idea of Netvibes is to put everything you need on a single customizable page, so that you can access all of it from anywhere. However, I didn’t just throw in every module that appeared on the huge Netvibes Ecosystem, otherwise I’d have hundreds of them by now. I’ve eliminated all that I didn’t use in a period of a week or two. These are the 13 Netvibes modules that I use regularly and can’t imagine my (Netvibes) life without them.

1. Netvibes Customize

If there’s something lacking in Netvibes, it’s customization options. Although this has improved recently, some options are still lacking. This module helps a bit and gives you a couple of fun options. With it, you can - for example - change the background of your Netvibes window, remove the borders of your modules or even make them transparent. One of the most useful options is the ability to pin the header (which contains the tabs) to the screen so you can see it even when you scroll down.

2. Latest Modules

Great if you want to keep up with the latest modules for Netvibes. Not that good if you’re a module junkie who just has to try everything, because your Netvibes is going to be stuffed with useless stuff really fast.

3. Calendar.

(It’s available from Netvibes, under Add Content). I use Google Calendar, and therefore this iCal supporting calendar is a pretty limited module, because you can’t enter new tasks - you can only see your upcoming schedule. However, I usually update my Google Calendar only once or twice per week, and I look at my schedule several times per day. This is where this module comes handy: since Netvibes is the first page I open every day, I see my daily duties immediately. It’s actually quite amazing how the authors managed to cram the weekly and monthly view into 200 pixels and make it as usable as it is. Oh yes, and if you don’t like the iCal version you can use the real Google Calendar in an embedded version.

4. Alexa traffic

I don’t hide the fact that I don’t really care much for Alexa’s results, as they can be quite erratic. However, many people (and services, especially those related to advertising) do, so it’s good to keep in touch. This little module spares me from checking out the Alexa rank for my sites, and I can compare up to 5 sites in it. If I needed more sites, I could simply add another Alexa traffic module - you can have as many as you like.

5. Bookmarks

If you often find yourself in the situation where you have to use someone else’s computer, then it might be a good idea to move your bookmarks to this Netvibes module for easy access. Simply export them as HTML and import them into Bookmarks. Folders are recognized as tabs, which is not the perfect way to organize them, but it’s good enough.

And here they are, in all their glory - the most useful Netvibes modules.

6. Quick Translator

The quickest and easiest way to translate text from one language to another. It supports all the available languages from Google Language Tool. Pity it doesn’t support website translation, though. If you prefer Altavista’s Babelfish, you can find it here.

7. Google Maps

Name says it all. It supports dragging, however middle mouse button scrolling doesn’t work. It’s not terribly useful, as in most cases you’ll still rather use the real Google Maps, however for some quick map-searching it will do.

8. Lorem Ipsum Generator

Sure, it’s not really hard to go to www.lipsum.com (if you’re not a webmaster and you’d like to know what the hell Lorem Ipsum means, go to this site, it’s all explained rather nicely) and grab some quick Lorem Ipsum, but why bother when you can do it faster with this always ready Lorem Ipsum generator? You can generate text by paragraph, word or byte number, and lists are supported too.

9. Meebo

If you’re already using Miranda, Trillian or some other IM client, you won’t use Meebo too often. But Meebo is really great to have when you’re working on someone else’s computer or if you can’t install software at work. With this module, it’s one less Firefox tab you need to have opened.

10. Trashmail

Need to give your e-mail to register at some obscure forum? A disposable e-mail address is the best way to do it and not have your mailbox crowded with spam. There are plenty online services that do this, but with this little module you don’t even have to remember their names.

11. DVD releases

Keeps track of new DVD releases for you. It’s not the most beautiful module out there, but it has quite a number of useful options and it works well. Pity it links to Amazon instead of IMDB, though.

12. Converter

This is one of those Swiss-army-knife type of tools that only the true 1337 will appreciate, but it has some features which are useful to everyone. Basically, it lets you convert text to another format - from ASCII to binary, from Hex to ASCII, from text to reverse text. Among the most useful options are the HTML tag stripper and the character counter (called length). A definite must have.

13. Usendit

Yousendit is a perfect service to use in Meebo. It enables you to send someone a large file (up to 100 MB), however the original site itself doesn’t really offer much besides this functionality, and what most people want is to simply send the file and be done with it. With this module, you can do it from Netvibes: quick and simple.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 10:56 am and is filed under Web, Web 2.0, Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.