Goowy, yet another quick look
Posted on February 19, 2006
3 Comments
Darn it, I was going to be done posting for the day, honest! But I got my 7th email/IM about Goowy and figured I might as well write up where I was at with this one. Don’t want to read? Ok, the summary is: I like it, but haven’t figured out yet where it fits in my “grand scheme of things.” Heh, digest that you little short-cut taker.
Goowy is yet another ajax/web 2.0 desktop application. But yet… there’s a lot more there than normal. In fact, the desktop is just one aspect of the thing. Add in your nifty (beta) calendar, some flash games, contact management, and a pretty sweet little email client (oh, and when you sign up you get 2GB of email at you@goowy.com). Oh yeah, and a desktop client(err, windows only at this time though) that I haven’t even looked at yet! Yeah, this is more than just “yet another ajax desktop.” There’s a lot here. And all apparently (?) flash based. I have mixed emotions there, but frankly it all just works.
The desktop has a nice little “task bar” along the bottom. I love it, it brings back fond memories of ye olde CDE from the early 90’s… but from that little bar, you can do just about every thing I mentioned above, along with setting option, searching help and logging out. Nice and obvious, yet non-obtrusive. When you first log in, a nice little panel pops up full of various things you might want to do — just click on one to get rolling. Or use the bar along the bottom.
Feed reading with this this app is sweet — yet [arguably] slow. IMO, you gotta be a bit patient, but the experience is pretty darned rewarding. If all you want is a feed reader alternative, I’d give it a look.
What don’t I like? When using it as a RSS feed reader, every feed has a del.icio.us link to bookmark. Suppose I don’t use that service (and I don’t! blinklist.com, baby!)
. Other than that, I don’t really have much to offer. I think performance could be a bit “snappier” but won’t make a huge deal out of that as I’ll be the first to concede that my “AMD Barton 2500+” is pretty old school these day. Those with modern rigs will likely see the flash gunk go a lot faster.
What would I like to see? Hmm, how about the ability to import (and export) opml? Maybe it is there and I just haven’t found it? Oh, and let me specify my “social bookmarking” site of choice — don’t assume I’m a del.icio.us lemming. I want to be able to sync to that calendar! Other than that… pretty slick. In fact, if they added in an IM client they’d probably take over the world!
Tags: beta, bookmarks, goowy, im, social-software, web2.0
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3 Responses to “Goowy, yet another quick look”
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Hi,
I read your comments on web based personalized desktops. I was wondering if you have visited Pageflakes (www.pageflakes.com) already? We are offering a similar service allowing you to read news feeds and setting up multiple pages that can be customized with local weather, address book, todo lists, event finders, TV guides and much more. Looking forward to hearing from you. Maybe you have some thoughts on what we can improve.
Thanks and best regards
Tegan
…and the actual link Pageflakes.