In a cheeky move, Netvibes has released a Facebook widget. Both Netvibes and Facebook are leading Web platforms for widgets (i.e. mini web apps that can be plugged into web pages and sites). So Netvibes is neatly trying to entice Facebook users to use Netvibes instead of Facebook as their homepage. Here is an example of the Facebook widget that Netvibes has released:
Of course it only includes Facebook data, not data from third party widgets. To be really cheeky, Netvibes should find a way to include all your third party Facebook widgets 😉 However Netvibes has actually done very well, because the only thing missing seems to be Facebook’s news feed – because Facebook does not currently allow outsider providers to access the News Feed. Given that Facebook is not very open (at least outwards), this is impressive. Also it should be mentioned that you still need to click through to facebook to go through your friend requests, group invites, etc.
We’ve written a couple of times about how Netvibes and Pageflakes are taking on Facebook. Right now, their main problem is that Facebook has much more developer interest and so there are hundreds more widgets for users to choose from on Facebook. But as consolation, Netvibes now has turned the tables on Facebook and made them into a mere widget 🙂
