Protopage

Protopage Ltd.
Type of businessLimited company
Available inMultilingual
FoundedLondon, 2004
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Andre Parrie
URLwww.protopage.com
LaunchedMay 15, 2005; 19 years ago (2005-05-15)
Current statusActive

Protopage is an RSS reader, virtual desktop, and Internet start page launched in London, United Kingdom, on 15 May 2005.[1]

The design offers color-coded tabs and categories to organize information, an audio and video podcast function, a news reader, the option to add cartoons, and a selection of widgets,[2] which can be dragged onto the desktop, arranged, and re-sized.[3] It is highly customizable and has been described as "simple to use."[4] One criticism is that it has only one mail widget, which requires connection via IMAP.[4]

Protopage has not taken venture capital and is debt-free.[5] Protopage outlasted Google's competitor service iGoogle,[6] which also launched in 2005 (just a few days after Protopage) but was shut down in November 2013.[7]

In 2007, the site was named one of the top 10 best free web apps by PC Magazine.[8] In 2008, it scored 4.5 out of 5 stars in a review by About.com.[9] In 2013, Chris Pirillo called Protopage "the best designed AJAX portal".[10]

In August 2015, support for "Universal headline import" was announced,[11] which allows the service to import headlines from any web site regardless of whether that site supports RSS feeds or not.

  1. ^ Michael Arrington. (August 18, 2005). "Techcrunch Profile--Protopage". Techcruch. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  2. ^ Cashmore, Peter. (December 6, 2006) "Protopage V3 Launches". Mashable. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  3. ^ Biersdorfer, J.D. (October 3, 2012) "Moving on From iGoogle". The New York Times. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  4. ^ a b Gordon, Whitson. (July 5, 2012) "Two Excellent, Customizable Start Pages Worth Trying". Lifehacker. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  5. ^ Protopage Blog. (July 4, 2012) "Protopage is 7 years old and outlasts iGoogle". Protopage Blog. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  6. ^ Jones, Gwyneth. (July 16, 2012) "Goodbye iGoogle-Hello Protopage". The Daring Librarian. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  7. ^ What's Happening to iGoogle". (February 22, 2013). Inside Search, Google. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
  8. ^ Gralla, Preston. (May, 2007) "101 best free web apps". PC Magazine, May 2007 edition, p.85
  9. ^ Daniel Nations. (March 22, 2008) "A Review of Protopage". About.com. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  10. ^ Pirillo, Chris. (July 19, 2009) "My Favorite Portal: Protopage". Chris Pirillo. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  11. ^ Protopage Blog. (August 11, 2015) "Happy 10th Birthday Protopage! Major new features announced". Protopage Blog. Retrieved December 18, 2015.