I’ve recently began researching web portals. I haven’t been a big fan of them in the past, but I’ve started to get back into them a little more. It’s just nice haveing a one stop site to get the latest news via RSS, email, the weather and photos. So I decided to see what was out there. I tried five different services including:

1. Google Personalized
2. Live
3. MyYahoo
4. Netvibes
5. Protopage

What I’ve come to figure out is that two stand above the rest. Netvibes and Protopage are my top picks, but I haven’t been able to pick just one.

Reviews:
Google
Pros: Lots of widgets to add, works well and is fast.
Cons: No tabs available and no iCal support (yet) or access to other email accounts.

Live
Pros: Looks nice.
Cons: Long sign-up process and not many features available.

MyYahoo
Pros: Tabs, themes, lots of Yahoo items tied in.
Cons: No external email check, seems slow, not the most user friendly.

Netvibes
Pros: Looks great, access’ Gmail and POP/IMAP mail accounts, access to Flicker images, tabs with tab icons and it’s quick and easy.
Cons: Won’t remember my POP email password and it had a hard time remembering my POP information. Support doesn’t seem to respond either and the blog is filling up with spam comments.

Protopage
Pros: Themeable, looks good, POP/IMAP mail accounts, free positioning of windows, tabs, background images, great support in the blog.
Cons: Tabs are small and not nameable, no Flicker support (showing images), doesn’t look as professional.

Supposedly Protopage has a new version coming out soon. I’m guessing that’ll knock the socks off Netvibes. But, until then, I think that Netvibes is my most used one. I just like the look and feel more than Protopage.

What are your thoughts? Do you have a favorite web portal?