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eHub Interviews Netvibes

Thanks to Tariq Krim and Florent Fremont of Netvibes for this email interview on October 3, 2005.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

Netvibes: Netvibes is a customizable web 2.0 application that helps you simplify your digital life.

eHub: Why did you start this project?

Netvibes: We needed a place where we could gather our favourite content and services available online. And because classic feed aggregators didn’t meet our needs we’ve decided to build our own.

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

Netvibes: Netvibes is a full time project. We spend some spare time on our niche publishing blogs (check GenerationMP3.com) and conferencing.

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

Netvibes: For now 2 people but opened to talented developers who want to join us!

Florent Fremont is a web developer specialized on interface design. He’s been developing rich internet applications in Flash since 1999, he is now devoted on building web2.0 services using Ajax and having fun with the DOM.

Tariq Krim has been involved in the web for 12 years, consulting for media groups and as an entrepreneur in two start-ups. He has been a long time RSS and web 2.0 evangelist.

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

Netvibes: Provide a service that makes things to work simpler, faster and better.

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

Netvibes:
- The technologies behind the funky label “AJAX” (JavaScript, XML)
- Extensive use of the DOM, XHTML/CSS
- RSS/ATOM, REST
- On the server side: Linux, apache, mysql, php

eHub: If your project is live, what are the most requested features from your users/community?

Netvibes: Collaborative features, more modules. the feedback and the involvement of the users is just incredible! We had some very strong inputs from the community.

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

Netvibes: Distributed! Netvibes is currently available in 8 languages, with localized content, and has been translated by the community to up to 20 languages.

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

Netvibes: We are currently working on that part. We hope that we will have some nice input on the current web 2.0 development.

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

Netvibes: Be fast and innovative.

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

Netvibes: A security model validated with the users, keep the user in the center and build synergies with other 2.0 services.

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

Netvibes: We have some ideas.

eHub: If you’re able to disclose this information, how much traffic or usage do you see on an average day?

Netvibes: We broke the 100k unique visitors in a few days, but we focus more now on scalability and service improvement. What we can tell is that the number of returning visitors is increasing every day.

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

Netvibes: To see so many users deciding that our website was worth being their homepage.

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

Netvibes:
Florent : what’s happening right now is that mature technologies is meeting a mature internet audience within a mature internet market, and it just represents a new start on making the web better

Tariq: A new generation that didn’t start with mosaic is accepting that we reinvent the web with no old rules and no old boundaries.

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

Netvibes:
Tariq:www.generationmp3.com , archive.org, lemonde.fr, techcrunch, Wired

Florent: we-make-money-not-art, techcrunch and del.icio.us

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

Netvibes: Not enough.

Thanks to Tariq Krim and Florent Fremont of Netvibes for this email interview on October 3, 2005.

Visit Netvibes
Originally added to eHub on Sep 18, 05

» More eHub Interviews

eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

Also see eHub Interviews in Japanese at CNET Japan