Library clips

Are PIM tools still in vogue or are Startpages overtaking this space?

Here is my list of web 2.0 PIM tools (Personal Information Management)…these services have to be more than an RSS Reader and bookmark manager, I’m looking for services that contain an RSS Reader, bookmark manager, email, IM, notes, to-do, contacts, forum, blog, etc…

Brim
Haystack
Nextaris (no longer)
omea pro
My Personal Home Page

…I’m sure there are loads more, perhaps this is more a question for Listible, Otavo, Fanpop, etc…

Not included are similar tools that are not at a personal level, these are more web 2.0 based project management, content management services, such as eloops, Near-Time, Wild Apricot, centraldesktop, Basecamp, etc…

Also not included are services that only include calendars, to-do, notes, contacts eg. AirSet, HipCal, Backpack, etc…

I like the idea of an all in one PIM (Personal Information Management) tool, but the problem is that each module just doesn’t cut it, eg. I use Rojo for RSS Reading (I don’t really use the bookmarking module), I use del.icio.us for bookmarking, I use Gmail for email, calendar, IM, I use Yedda for Q&A, I use ziki for profile, I use Google Notebook for notes, I use Rasasa for alerts, and I haven’t yet worked out what I use for photo’s, video’s, tasks, to-do, time, files, etc…this list could go on forever, but I guess I have mentioned the essentials.

I guess the idea of a startpage (such as Pageflakes and netvibes) is a work around this as you can re-syndicate or enable widgets for all your services on the one page, these are especially effective when they are fully functional within the start page, eg. meembo, Gabbly, del.icio.us, and Box.net in netvibes.

Others that are not fully functional modules in netvibes are Flickr, Writely, digg, ebay, and Gmail.

At the same time startpages have their own tools such as bookmarks, calendar, weather, to-do, notes, RSS Reader (just check out the PageFlakes awesome inbuilt RSS Reader).

NOTE: you can even feed or OPML graze or web surf with the Bitty Browser widget…see the rest.

Startpages can have:
- inbuilt modules
- host other services basically fully functional
- host other services not fully functional

In a way startpages are becoming a dream, instead of a service trying to build the best swiss army PIM tool, you can create your own using a start page, thanks to widgets.

But then again a tool like Haystack allows for each of these modules to talk to each other, true integration…I feel the IBM PIM dashboards do a similar thing, eg. tag someone into Fringe Contacts from within the IM.

3spots has the latest in webpage monitoring with a service called Diffbot, it is an RSS Reader with a built in webpage monitor…the great thing it seems is that you can read your monitored webpages in RSS Reader tradition.

I mostly use WatchThatPage, and I get updates by email, I guess there is no stopping me converting this email into RSS to read it in my RSS Reader. Or I can read the latest by logging in to WatchThatPage, but this isn’t a great experience. This is where Diffbot takes off, they have just made the reading experience more with what you are used to.

Although if you use Feedwhip, you need not bother, as this monitoring service enables you to login to read, sends email alerts, or even generates a feed for each of your alerts to subscribe to…pity the login interface isn’t set up to look like an RSS Reader. But you can subscribe to these feeds in your usual RSS Reader…just make a folder for your webpage monitoring feeds.

I guess the good thing about Diffbot is that your webpage monitor and your RSS Reader are the same client…this is handy, but l can never find an all in one web 2.0 swiss army PIM tool that I’ll be happy with.

NOTE: Feedwhip is based in a social network environment, where you can look at a users monitored items, or browse these items by tag.
Sorry about that I got carried away, the only communal part about it, is that you can view the most recent feed whips. Actually some updates are you can group your feeds into a single feed, and you can have multiple email addresses per account.

Also see Newzie, it is a desktop RSS Reader with a webpage monitoing module…Elsua has a thorough post on this and other great features, this is an advanced RSS Reader.