The start page will not load and has been on and off for a few days. Normally, the Pageflakes forum is reachable but that is out too. I have bookmarks set up on it which are used daily, so its non-appearance is a pain.

I have a Netvibes page set as backup but the bookmarks part has a severe error and they will not display. So now I have set up Protopage.

Protopage came in third behind Pageflakes and Netvibes in a review a couple of years back. Well, it is now in 1st place by virtue of the fact that it still works. It is as customisable as Pageflakes, there being lots of widgets on offer and it makes a great RSS feed reader.

I feel that I have given Pageflakes a good shot since it first appeared, but it is too unreliable. I sympathise with the creator, and I understand that offering stuff for free is maybe not sustainable for ever, and that it is difficult to charge for something like an Ajax start page and actually get people to pay.

The trouble is that users want reliability, and if the service can’t be made reliable with the funds available, and there are no funds from elsewhere which can be pumped in, maybe it is best to call it a day with the entire venture. Make  no mistake,, I woulld sooner stay with Pageflakes, butt the way things are, it is of no use to me unless it is working..

Protopage lives here: http://www.protopage.com/protopage/about