Dapper Support for Netvibes: Create your own “modules”
There has been a lot of buzz recently about what we at the Geek call “landing pages”. I think that is a good name compared with homepage because a landing page is not necessarily a “homepage”. I think of a homepage as a blog or maybe for you it is Google Search but a landing page is where you can settle and let the web come to you. Netvibes is one such landing page. Apparently our beloved CEO of TPN; Cameron Reilly of G’day World has driven everyone mad with how much he has been talking about it. Netvibes deserves the hype, and is a benchmark for others to follow.
Today a service called dapper has announced today that with dapper you can create a “module” that can be placed on your Netvibes page without having to program (I am guessing that it previously required some code-monkey antics to work). This includes pages that do not have an RSS feed.
Dapper describes itself as:
“… a service that allows you to extract and use information from any web site on the Internet. For those familiar with web services, you can think of Dapper as an API maker. For the rest of you, Dapper allows you to build web applications and mashups using data from any web site without any programming.”
Dapper is not for the faint hearted either I might add. I had a bit of a play around with it and it does require a lot of trial and error. I would suggest that people check out the demo videos for a bit of a crash course in creating a “dapp”.
Once you have created your dapp on the “how to use page” select “Netvibes Module” then you can configure it however you wish it to appear. One hot tip though is to search the database for previously created dapps as you might be inventing the wheel and who wants to do that? There is also a good FAQ page that may help you get started.
I have found many pages recently that do not have an RSS feed but have regularly updated content such as Buzzjax. Buzzjax is a mashup site of a number of services: Yahoo! Buzz, with Google News, Tecnorati, Yahoo! Images and Amazon based around pop culture. No RSS, no problem with dapper – create a Netvibes module based around what aspect of Buzzjax you are interested in and wack it on your Netvibes page.
I think that anyone who is willing to have a crack at using dapper and persevered with it will be in for a treat. Dapper offers a truly unique experience in that it represents a glimpse of the future in that we, the users manipulate the web to be what we want it to be. We force the Internet come to us in every respect. However, making dapper easier to use would encourage the adoption of the service.
Let us know if you manage to create a cool module for Netvibes and we will feature it on the show!
