YourMinis...a flashy, widgety start page

I recently discovered YourMinis, a Flash-based start page/RSS feed reader/widget platform. My first impression is favorable, but time will tell if it deserves a space as my browser's home page.



What I like:

• Easy RSS feed addition


• OPML file import/export


• Interesting widgets built in (calendar, Gmail, clock, to-do list, Digg feed, calculator, notes, bookmarks, full browser, search, video, etc.)


• Beautiful default look


• Drag & Drop windows, lock 'em down, change opacity, colors, etc.


• Publish your "minis" or your whole tab of minis.


• Social feel. Very Web 2.0.


• Multiple tabs


• Inline web browser makes loading a news story convenient


• The ability to load any image as my tab's background

My questions:

• Is Flash going to be too heavy for my browser's start page?


• Are more interesting widgets coming?


• Do we need another widget platform? Can't we all just get along?


• Will we be able to further customize the look of our minis, or the basic mini windows?

So far, I really like what I see. It feels more polished to me than Netvibes or Pageflakes. They apparently have over 800,000 users so far, which is not bad, but still lags behind their competitors. But I still question the use of Flash...it's a great tool, but there are many people who would prefer to stick to standard HTML for a much lighter weight start page. We'll see!