Who Has the Best Portal?

I am using the new google homepage and love it to be frank... having the extra bells and whistles make me think of things to look at I may never have thought of... and it makes a great news aggregator.

Hi,
I would say in regard to your last paragraph, it is more valuable to have paid workers acting as cogs. If they're paid, it'll get done, and once the basics are done chances are it'll always expand quickly.
Kinda anyway.

How many real internet users have the time to configure a Google homepage with their things. Most people just load and search... very simple... Possibly one reason Google's homepage became such a hit.

I think most of Google users will not use this new invention, they will just use Google as a searcg engine and nothing more.

I'm happy to use it. Just using the bookmarks feature alone saves a bunch of time. Look how popular those "social bookmarking" sites have become.. If the Goog or a savvy FF developer creates a plugin to "add to my desktop" I would use it.

RockSolidWes said:
"How many real internet users have the time to configure a Google homepage with their things"

I think your underestimating the general user. They are much more savvy than you give them credit for. I think that if enough people use the feature just once, they will continue using it.

I think portals are cool and all, but I see the shift to widgets...I think offering widgets that will connectusers to what they see as important content will suparss the need for portals.

netvibes.com has the best portal at the moment. Tabs, custom background, tons of widgets. That's my choice.

I use a Linux-based portal called Joomla pretty extensively. It's easy to use, easy to skin (with very professional templates available) and with a content and media management system very easy to grow with.

Best of all it's free! Some of the better components that work with it cost, but typically no more than $50. The site I have listed with this post uses it. Recommended.

I think I'm Google maniac ;), I like their tools very much and also the google homepage. Of course there are modules that only slow down your system, but there are a few default modules with hidden Google power:
The Google Bookmark module is one of the best tools I use daily, fast and accessible everywhere...

I wrote also some Google modules and according my stats they are used by larger commnunity. On the other site I know a lot of internet users that using google only for the search... I think the biggest group of the google homepage users are people using other google services (f.e. gmail) too...

I enjoy being able to view email subjects from the google homepage too.

I find the Google portal pretty restrictive though. You can only list most recent 9 headlines for an RSS feed or email or whatever. And with Gmail you're limited to a few characters. But those are quibbles easy enough to resolve.

Incidentally, the "only listing most recent headlines" is a problem with your blog too by the way Aaron. I like to scan headlines vs search by keyword or month. I might enjoy reading through past posts but I don't want to search by month OR keyword. I want summary like your search results contain. I don't know if you use wordpress but if you do and need the code to put If you need the template let me know. I just did it at IBMeye.com

netvibes.com has the best portal at the moment. Tabs, custom background, tons of widgets. That's my choice.