A French start-up called Netvibes is trying to take on the likes of Yahoo and Google by offering Internet users a better way to organize news, information and other Web-based services.
The site, at www.netvibes.com, is being billed as easier to use than RSS feeds and more flexible than MyYahoo or Google's home page.
Recently infused with €12 million, or $15.3 million, of venture capital, the community-built site encourages users to tinker with information from different sources to create their own personal home page, tracking numerous sites at a single glance.
The elements combined on a page could include news headlines, an eBay auction or e-mail account, or functions like currency converters or language translators borrowed from different Web sites.
To Tariq Krim, founder of Netvibes, the site is part of a trend toward empowering users to adapt the Internet to their needs. "We help users cut through the Internet's bureaucracy by getting them to exactly and only what they need," Krim said. "Our key advantage over proprietary home pages like Yahoo or Google is the enthusiasm of the Netvibes ecosystem."
This so-called ecosystem consists of a growing range of pre-programmed modules - often created by other users - that can be placed on personal home pages with a simple click.
In addition to writing modules with the simple programming tools provided by Netvibes, users have been enlisted to help translate much of the site's content.
"When people are given the tools to solve problems, they invest themselves deeply," Krim said.
The modules help filter headlines or bring essential functions from the Web. Instead of taking a full page - including advertisements - to view Altavista's popular Babelfish translator, for example, the Netvibes module includes only what is necessary for the user to do a translation.
All modules appear in small boxes that can easily be shifted around the dashboard-style home page, and tabs can be used to organize multiple pages.
The idea for Netvibes came to Krim as a solution to information overload he faced running a previous Web site he founded, generationMP3.com.
The site was dedicated to sharing consumer reviews of the latest electronic devices, so Krim found himself spending a lot of time reading competitor's sites.
"I needed to know only the latest headlines of my competitors," Krim said. "Has the Web site or blog been updated with anything interesting or new?"
Netvibes was not broadly announced when it started in September of last year, yet 15,000 people visited within the first day, and more than five million users have now signed up to use it, Krim said.
The best sign that some people use the site as a primary entry point into the Internet, Krim said, is the fact that for 10 percent of users, the site remains active all day long.
Faced with runaway growth - there are users are in more than 100 countries, with roughly half in the United States - Krim recently took on outside investment in the form of €12 million of venture capital funding from the London-based firms Accel Partners and Index Ventures.
The money will be used to bolster the site's infrastructure and help foster more user-built functions.
Given the competition, some are skeptical the site can succeed.
"The implementation and design is much cleaner than Google or Yahoo, but that might not be sufficient," said Barry Parr, a San Francisco-based media analyst at Jupiter Research. "My question is whether they can exist as a standalone business."
Krim admitted that the site's revenue model was not clear, but said it could include payments from Web sites whose feeds go through Netvibes pages or charging a premium for prominent placement of a site's feed.
"I am not worried about revenue right now, I am concerned about the user experience," Krim said. "Once users are happy, I am sure the revenue model will make itself clear."
Netvibes' latest investors, of course, expressed confidence.
"With Netvibes becoming a browser within a browser for millions, it suddenly becomes a very attractive business model and easy to monetize," said Danny Rimer, the London-based general partner for Index Ventures, which co-led the recent round of investment. "We don't invest in companies unless they have a standalone business."
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