What Is Netvibes

Netvibes - What Is It?

If you are reading this article right now, this is not the only site you browse. While you are online, probably you check your email, weather, stocks and a few news sites and the list keeps going on and on as you find cool sites everyday. It can be annoying to check all your favourite  sites one by one and it’s time consuming too. Tariq Krim, the founder of Netvibes thought the same way and he came up with this brilliant idea to put all sites on one page so you don’t have to browse from site to site to obtain updated information. Of course, you can argue that Google and Yahoo did the same by offering personalized page … long time ago but Netvibes does things better and easier way than those big guys and the looks are a lot better than Yahoo and Google.

Impressive Stats
Its no wonder 15,000 people visited on the first day of it’s launch in September, 2005 and more than five million users signed up. 60% users are from the US and there are users from more than 100 countries. 10 percent of users keep Netvibes page active throughout the day and use it as entry point into other sites.

Ecosystem
Netvibes offers ecosystem – made of pre-programmed modules which are made by users and you can put them on your own Netvibes page just with a click. Modules can be as different as news feeds, blog feeds, stock charts, weather reports and hundreds of different things. Lets say you added an RSS feed on your Netvibes page and you think it is cool and would be be useful to other users..you can publish this RSS feed on ecosystem with a click. Very simple and easy.

Months To Verify?
I have created Netvibes modules for www.adawn.net and many other sites and some of them stopped working without any reasons. To keep my module active, I wanted to delete the inactive one but I could not find delete option anywhere. Finally, I had to create another module for www.adawn.net. Also, sites submitted   in the beginning of October have not been verified yet by Netvibes team. A module is not available to other users until Netvibes team verifies it and if takes months to verify… its a sign that Netvibes needs to hire more people to keep up with heavy traffic.

Not Alone
competitors are not napping in the meanwhile. Lots of other sites are popping up with similar concept and they have the financial and technological support to compete Netvibes. Webwag, Pageflakes, Protopage and many more are working at a tremendous pace to catch up with Netvibes.

Future Unknown
It would be interesting to see how Netvibes starts earning money. Investors already pouring in millions of dollars and Netvibes has not mentioned anything yet about how money can be generated. I would not be surprised to see the only exit point being sold to Yahoo or Google.

Originally published on www.adawn.net. I am transferring all my articles from Canada’s Personal Finance Website. You will see articles from www.adawn.net being posted here once in a while. Thanks.

Scoot Airlines Review: Instead of Buying Business Class, Do This.

Scoot Flight: Singapore to Melbourne Boeing 787-800

This leg of my four-country trip from Singapore to Melbourne, Australia, I decided to fly a low-cost flight instead of business class. Singapore Airlines’ subsidiary Scoot seemed to be a good option.

I was contemplating Scoot’s business class called Scoot Biz, but decided to go for Scoot in Silence. And I was glad I did.

My flight was 3 hours late. But the delay appeared on the screen at the last moment when people were already at the counter. There was no one from Scoot to be found anywhere to confirm the delay. I saw that some people started sleeping on floor at the waiting area near the gate counter because it was already midnight.

After a long wait, I boarded the plane and was happy that I chose Scoot in Silence. It costed me around $80 for the seat selection in the Scoot in Silence quiet zone. I had my seat right behind the business class section after the divider. There was no one in front of me and even the seats next to me were empty.

Scoot in Silence does not allow kids under 12 and the seats are better than economy with 34-inch peach rather than 31-inch regular economy. And being in the 1st front row bulkhead seat in Scoot in Silence, I had no one sitting in front of me and I literally had infinite leg stretch space.

The Scoot Biz cabin was right in front of me and I noticed the seats are not lie-flat business class; it’s more like premium economy. They just have a little more space in between and in front compared to my seat. Definitely it’s not worth paying extra for business class. You will get the best value for your money if you spend around $80 (Canadian) and pick a seat in the Scoot in Silence zone, especially where there are no seats are in front of you.

I ordered food online months ahead and its quality was not bad. The overall cleanliness of the aircraft exceeded my expectations, including the bathrooms, and I did not find anything to complain about.

 Except for the delay and the absence of anyone from Scoot to properly communicate with the customers, everything else was a pleasant experience, and I won’t mind flying again with Scoot.

Wellington, New Zealand Travel Guide

Wellington, New Zealand Travel Guide

If you are staying in Wellington and having trouble to find things to do whilst you are on holiday then why not take a look go and visit the main attractions in Wellington. If you are not sure which are the main attractions in Wellington then in the next few paragraphs we are going to talk about some main attractions that you can visit. This will give you a good idea what you can do in Wellington and should make you want to book some attractions that you have not already thought off.

The Wellington Zoo attracts all ages young and old. They have different events during the day as well as taking a tour round the zoo its self. If you are looking for a gift or something for yourself to say that you have visited the zoo then you will able to go to the shop which is located in the zoo. When at the zoo you should get inspired on how big the zoo is and how much room the animals have to move around in. Due to the large size of the zoo you will able to get a map so you do not get lost within the zoo.

If you are staying in Wellington you should go around the whole island and see the beautiful sites and views. The best way of doing this would be to make an arrangement to take a tour with the tour guide Jennifer. She will bring the best out of Wellington and will provide you with loads of information about the history of the island. If you are looking for a bar tour in Wellington then she will also set up this special tour for you.

Museum of New Zealand is another main attraction that you should go and see. If you are thinking about the cost of this holiday in Wellington then you should worry on more when going to see this attraction due to the fact that it is FREE. Even though Museums can be boring for kids they have an area for them where they do arts and crafts whilst you go and look at the amazing artifacts in the museum. This will allow you to not worry about your kids breaking anything as they will be pre occupied with having in fun within the museum. Once you have left your kids or even if you do not have any kids you will able to go around the museum and be inspired on what is actually in the museum and will help you take your mind of things back home. But for FREE it is defiantly worth a visit.

If you are one of these people that are not sure on if you like tasting new foods why not face your fears and go on a Zest food tour whilst you are in Wellington. This will make your experience more enjoyable and will allow you to see what people actually eat in New Zealand. You go around walking from store to store and taste some of the most exquisite foods that you will eat.

I hope you will take these attractions into account when you are looking to take a trip to Wellington in New Zealand.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Travelnowsimply.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com site. This article originally published on the above website on March 12, 2010.

Shape Up Your Finance - Unlimited Magazine Interviews Financial Author Ahmed Dawn

Media Coverage: Business Magazine Interviews Ahmed Dawn

First Published: January 12, 2009 ADawnJournal.com

Canada’s new business magazine “Unlimited” Jan/Feb 2009 issue is now available at bookstores and newsstands. In this issue, Unlimited magazine presents my perspectives on personal finance for young professional among with other experts.

You can read this article titled “Shape Up Your Finance: A six-step training guide for your bank account. Because money doesn’t grow on trees” in the magazine or online.

How To Pick The Right Moment

Picking the Right Moment

Most, if not all of us, have agonised over decisions for far longer than is healthy at one time or another. The difficulty of leading a life of second-guessing and false starts is that it becomes hard if not impossible to move forward with any kind of momentum and confidence, against a backdrop of uncertainty. The longer it goes on, the harder it becomes to break the cycle. When something becomes habitual it becomes part of the structure of your life. This is a simple fact, and part of why addicts find it so difficult to kick the habit. They may want to consign their dependence to the past, and have long ago stopped feeling the benefit of the substance to which they were addicted, but leaving it behind means changing the structure of their lives – and that is difficult.

All of us have a certain structure to our lives. Even if the structure seems chaotic, there is generally an element of routine in it, even if that routine does not extend very far beyond getting out of bed every day. Moving away from the habits which are holding you back means making a change to that structure. Perhaps a good analogy for this would be that you are standing in a burning building. To escape you need to climb down a ladder. In the burning building, you have the temporary advantage of solid ground, but sooner or later standing there is going to cause you problems. That ladder may be unfamiliar and even a little bit unsteady, but by climbing down it you are going to improve your future prospects.

There is no shortage of people who will hesitate before stepping on to the ladder – metaphorically or literally – because there is something there to be afraid of. It doesn’t feel all that safe, and the fear of the unknown is something which affects all of us at one time or another. Making a change requires determination. It is a case of looking at the problems which stand behind and around you and seeing a way that you can say goodbye to them. They may be old and familiar problems, and stepping on to the ladder may well hold problems of its own later on, but getting on the ladder is the thing. You are putting behind you something which is definitely causing you problems, and giving yourself a chance of directly improving your situation. Future problems are to be worried about in the future.

If you are having difficulty making a necessary change because your current problems at least have the advantage of being familiar, it just takes one decisive action to consign the problems of the present to the past. It requires bravery and determination, and it will ask a lot of you, but it is better to simply make that decisive action and free yourself. Once it is done you will immediately begin to relax, and then you are in the position of being able to dictate where you go next. Rather than letting your life burn down, you can build it so as to resist future fires.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Simplepersonaldevelopment.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to Ahmed Dawn Dot Com. This article originally published on the above website on August 30, 2009.