[img src="http://stc.live.com/live/img/logo.gif" caption="" credit="" alt=""]
After the launch of Live.com, Microsoft's first real foray into the start page space (start.com was purely experimental), Richard MacManus has taken a fresh look at AJAX start pages. It turns out the big boys have a lot of catching up to do if they're going to match the little startup that could - Netvibes is still better by a long shot. The Google Personalized Homepage, meanwhile, is "ugly and awkward to use". Go Netvibes!
The only problem is, live.com is very buggy to actually use - it doesn't even perform as well as start.com. It's also an ugly, bare homepage with no color, style, or… verve about it. OK it's got "beta" scrawled on it, but still… this is the future of Microsoft web-based media?! Hmmm. There is some promise in the form of Microsoft Gadgets, which are third party developer add-ons and tools for live.com. But it's fair to say Live.com leaves a lot to the imagination at this point in time.