Posted by: mlapora on May 28, 2008 - 03:53 AM  | Topic: General Announcement 

I'm a big Netvibes fan. I think they do a fantastic job at the whole RSS/desktop/reader/ajaxy thingy. That's not to say I don't like the other alternatives, but Netvibes grabbed me away from google/ig early on and I've never looked back.

Two features unique to Netvibes (as far as I know; allow me to freely admit my ignorance) that I think set it apart: one is the ability to create a public page (either for yourself or for an organization), the other is the ability to view RSS links in their native webpage embedded within the Netvibes experience (more on that later). I previously had no reason to use the former feature (the public page), but then it struck me that it would be a cool way to show off Rhapsody, and as it happens, it serendipitously showcases the latter feature. With that said, here's my attempt at a Rhapsody on Netvibes page...

Rhapsody on Netvibes

This page uses a variety of Rhapsody feeds, including:

* Lots of RSS feeds from Rhapsody.com (charts, channels, playlists, suggestions)
* Listening History feeds from Rhapsody.com (of various Rhapsody staff, including yours truly)
* RSS feeds of some Rhapsody blogs
* RSS feeds of various Rhapsody partner blogs
* Embedded Rhapsody.com tab
* Playback through our simple.js Play links

As I touched on above, one of the cool features in Netvibes is the ability to open an associated RSS link (click the "Show Website" button on the feed view pane) as a web page embedded within the tab you are reading. This is generally useful for RSS feeds that only display partial information before the jump. In the Rhapsody on Netvibes use case it's very cool because each page is a play.rhapsody.com link, which automatically launches the simple.js player. This enables you to use the Rhapsody on Netvibes page as a full featured Rhapsody experience (browsing and playback).

That's all for now, hope you enjoy Rhapsody on Netvibes! -- Josh