Well, that was an interesting 24 hours! Pageflakes users reacted quickly and with fury at the unexpected addition of the advertising on all of their pages; many users immediately switching to the main competition Netvibes. Others expressed considerable dismay in the Pageflakes forums, and there was a very swift climbdown on the part of Pageflakes - the obtrusive advertising has now disappeared.
The current suggestion is that users are going to be offered a Pageflakes Pro version with no advertising at a rate of about $24 per year - a similar figure to the annual Flickr subscription. Users who prefer the free version will have to put up with the advert but have it at the bottom of the screen.
I'm pleased to see Pageflakes responding so quickly, and I think the immediate response has really shocked them. Unfortunately, it also means that they really don't understand their audience at all, and several people have expressed concerns to me about the extent to which they can trust the company now (which is not at all!) It's very disappointing because this could have been so easily avoided, if they'd just talked to their users. However, it's another really interesting example of the way in which the power balance is flicking back and forth in a Web 2.0 environment; sometimes user protests work and sometimes they don't, but users are generally now very quick to voice their opinions. Moreover, since there are plenty of other options available for all of these resources it's tremendously easy for people to simply up and move on - perhaps we're all cyber-nomads now? It's also a useful point for end users to remember - these resources do require money, and it has to be found from somewhere! Advertising is certainly a good option, but it does need to be much more unobtrusive; Pageflakes got that wrong on so many levels!
So - what's going to happen next? Pageflakes has lost a huge amount of user goodwill, which is justified. I'm not entirely sure if they're going to get it back either - now that people have discovered how easy Netvibes is to use I think many who have moved over will stay there. Others will explore options such as iGoogle and the rest of them. I don't yet think this is a terminal blow for the resource, but they're going to have to work very hard to regain their position of trust. Also, if they're going to charge for a service I'd want to see a far more professional approach than they have shown so far - lack of blog updates, loss of connectivity, loss of community Pageflakes does not inspire confidence. My personal view is that I'll continue to use them, but equally I've got a back up of my most used resources on Netvibes, which is something that I've always had. I'll certainly be less enthusiastic about them in the future and will be offering other alternatives on my courses.
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