Start Pages are Everywhere

Over the last couple years, Start Pages have gone from a new niche that everyone was trying out, to now more of a standard expected offering, with various widget formatting options. For example, here are a few recent postings for start pages:

• CircLabs Launches Circulate for Start Pages & Email Alerts
• Netvibes moves closer to Hyper Personalization
• How to Set Multiple Anime Start Pages
• Mint integrates with Yahoo Start Pages
• List of 17 Personalized Start Pages, from Netvibes to New York Times
• 7 Ways to create your own Social Start Page

What used to be dominated by news of pure play providers Netvibes & Pageflakes, now loads of websites are employing some aspects of the start page application, which is probably natural as the start page itself is just an integration of widgets, with differences mostly on the style or look and feel when using the application.

The look and feel or user interface is important and can it can be difficult sometimes to find the right balance, a format that provides as much information as needed, but not too much to become cluttered or busy. The most important aspect though is probably that it has a good integration with other things that you're using it for. For example, the New York Times version would be focused with widgets of New York Times features, vs iGoogle is more connected to their internal applications, and so on. How well they integrate for the needs of their audience will be ongoing give and take relationship.