Netvibes is Tres Cool

I've mentioned Netvibes a few times in the past. Simply, I think this is a great indicator of the future of Internet usage. Word on the street is that the Netvibes' user base is in the several millions and per the graph from Alexaholic below, showing accelerating growth (over and above other webtop competitors like Pageflakes and Meebo).

Frankly, I still prefer my Bloglines account to access my content. As an RSS reader, Netvibes doesn't collapse the content well enough to aggregate more than a few feeds on the webtop. In addition, the feeds include the title but require a mouse over to see the content underneath (as opposed to a quick view of the content below the title). That said, the integration of web services from Box.net, eBay, Yahoo Mail and inclusion of web search are very compelling. As Netvibes continues to aggregate other web services and/or improve their RSS reader function (I have 49 different feeds on Bloglines), it won't take long for me to transition over completely.

Word of caution to any application or site that isn't investing in web services. Centralized access to your app via APIs will become a key competitive advantage (whether for you or for your competition is your call :)). Netvibes is showing a head of steam in this direction. Hopefully it's enough to become another viable starting point for Internet access...