Want a personalized start page without the hassle of constantly adding feeds and gadgets? Genieo is a desktop app that monitors your browsing history, figures out what you like, and then creates a personal start page just for you. You can also add your Twitter account to let it pull information from there.
In theory, this sounds like a great, lazy way to get your own personalized start page. Plus, since it’s a desktop app, the whole process takes place on your computer and Genieo doesn’t send out or share any personal information-a plus if you’re concerned about privacy.
Genieo is still in alpha, and it appears that their algorithm needs a little bit of work. After having it installed on my computer for a few days, the profile it produced for me was not quite accurate. Although a couple of sites I read often, like TechCrunch and Mashable, were included, sites like AVG were also listed as favorites. Out of all of the many hours I spent online last week, I was probably at AVG for 30 minutes downloading software. There was also a client’s website that I last visited BEFORE I installed Genieo.
That’san other thing about a service like Genieo-if, like me, your job requires you to browse sites or look for information that you wouldn’t seek out otherwise, then a service like this is bound to pick up an inaccurate picture of your interests.
The options to customize Genieo are also extremely limited, which is understandable given the fact that its selling point is that it compiles everything on its own, without you having to lift a finger. Still, it would be nice I could tell Geneio that “ClientX’s” feeds and topics aren’t really my favorites. Although you can stop following a specific site’s feed, there’s no way to manually take it out of your favorite sites or to take off a specific topic.
Finally, Genieo’s “personalization sensor” add-on for Firefox appears to be conflicting with my Google Shortcuts add-on. This displeases me.
I’m sure Genieo will get better over time. As I said, they are still in alpha. I do think they need to increase users’ control over their start pages, though-I’m just not sure how many people will want to sign on for a customized start page that they can’t manually tweak and customize.
What do you think of Genieo?
Our Rating of Genieo
Categories:Desktop
Looks cool RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day: Genieo: Create a personalized homepage without lifting a finger http://su.pr/1QzoNC
Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – Want a personalized start page without the hassle of constant… http://ow.ly/16dAOn
Looks cool RT @usefultools: Tool of the Day: Genieo: Create a personalized homepage without lifting a finger http://su.pr/1QzoNC
Genieo – Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – UsefulTools.com http://su.pr/1QzoNC
Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger http://bit.ly/6InVll Web-design.alltop
Alltop: Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger http://bit.ly/6DL6I1
Genieo – Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – UsefulTools.com http://su.pr/1QzoNC
Thank you for trying out Genieo.
Please note that on our Feb release we will give users more control over their feeds and favorite sites; you will be able to remove items from all over your startpage including your favorite portals.
Also, you can sign-in to your Facebook account and see how Genieo monitors your friends feeds for you and highlight blog posts that match your topic of interest.
We will check out our Firefox add-on, it shouldn’t conflict with Google add-on in any case
Again, Thank you for taking the time to try out Genieo, you are more than welcome to contact me directly for any question/feedback you might have.
Sol
RT @purplehayz: Genieo – create a personal home page without lifting a finger http://is.gd/5CvJ9
Genieo – create a personal home page without lifting a finger http://is.gd/5CvJ9
Tool of the Day: Genieo: Create a personalized homepage without lifting a finger http://su.pr/1QzoNC (via @usefultools)
Genieo – Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – UsefulTools.com http://ow.ly/QZxJ
Genieo – Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – UsefulTools.com http://ow.ly/QZxY
Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/usefultoolsfeed/~3/l8mTBy_F4I0/
Genieo – Create a Personal Homepage Without Lifting a Finger – http://su.pr/1QzoNC