Symbaloo

‘Symbaloo’ is a Greek verb that stands for ‘assembling’. This carries and reflects the place this application holds in the Web2.0. It is basically a personal online desktop, which helps users in managing favorite sites and services. Frequent web users have very large number of links saved in the browser’s, bookmarks in folders, etc. However, only a few website addresses are the ones visited quite often. By using this simple start page ‘Symbaloo’, one can smoothly handle the links of these frequently accessed websites. In addition one can always remain updated with the changes happening in the websites that were collected on the Symbaloo grid. Users can add their own sites to Symbaloo in order to enable other Symbaloo users to add it to their desktops. This requires some information like site’s title; URL; icon and e-mail address to be submitted. Besides this, one has complete freedom to move, delete or add the icons of the collected links. One can share the desktop without registering; however publishing needs one to get registered. The size of desktop can be altered by adding or removing rows and columns, if needed. One can also have news updates from Yahoo or MSNBC. Symbaloo launched in 2007. The idea of this application was conceived by Tim Has out of his attempt to make internet more accessible than ever. Its registered office is in Delft, the Netherlands and currently has Eduard Weijgers as its CEO. Efforts to expand its reach are being made, with the service being extended to Netherlands, France, Spain, US and UK. Apart from some of the mentionable features like ability to change the size and position of the desktop; there is not much to talk about. The developers have compromised in informing visitors about this application. So, there is a lot of scope for improvement. Moreover, the services of Symbaloo are still not tailored for mobile devices like PDA or smartphone, whereas a number of similar applications provide this facility. To start with, the concept behind Symbaloo’s existence is new, and moving from one page to other is fast enough. Blue and grey text on black background along with the absence of pop-ups imparts an attractive appearance. However, the good part ends here itself. The way things have been put on the web pages is in serious need of re-consideration. One needs an excessive amount of time to figure out the way it operates. Attempts to make it more user-friendly are needed as information have not been communicated in an easy to understand way. This can easily make a first time visitor opt out of this website. Add to these woes the use of Dutch language in one of the sections limits the reach of the site. One does not need to register to own and compose a desktop. This desktop is placed in a cookie in the browser of the user. However, to have access to multiple computers, account has to be created. For this, name, e-mail address and password are to be provided. In addition to this, one can subscribe to the newsletter to have all the information about the current happenings. Terms and conditions regarding the usage have also been provided. A confirmation e-mail with a link in it is sent to the e-mail address provided. Clicking on this link verifies the account. The services offered by Symbaloo are free of charge and further no apparent advertisements are visible on the pages. The company has not disclosed any future plans for revenue generation. Symbaloo can be used by people to add to the visibility of their organization, product or brand. This is possible with the creation of free public desktop. Also, ones who are into forming branded startpage can jump into this application. Moreover, it also caters to the need of a substitute for intranet. One can have a customized Corporate Startpage made for the specific company; thereby increasing the degree of collaboration among the employees.