Webjam - Personalized, Socialized Homepages
Webjam, not to be confused with the Webjam Session conference, is another in the seemingly crowded startup market for do-it-all sites. When you create an account, Webjam automatically makes a few pages for you - one for your Webjam blog, one for your actual homepage and then one for your personal profile.
As you should expect for any such service, everything is customizable. Webjam is built around modules and it's easy to create a layout you like. You can even edit the styles and CSS for your pages. However, that won't change the confusing navigation. Webjam is flooded with links and that can be a huge turnoff for the casual web user.
Similar to the popular customizable homepage offerings like Netvibes, Pageflakes and Webwag, users can add modules - little content boxes, everything from displaying RSS feeds to acting as a notepad. Since some of your pages can be made public and shown to friends, you can control the privacy on each module. Although, the homepage is private only, similar to your Google.com/ig homepage.
The social aspect seems to be neglected at first, but then you realize that Webjam's social features weren't designed to be like Facebook or MySpace. Yes, users have profiles pages similar to those services but Webjam focuses on their users organizing their content & web experience, then sharing that with others. That became evident to me after browsing around at some other users' Webjam pages.
Unfortunately, I feel that Webjam's cluttered interface leaves something to be desired. They do have a comprehensive tutorial for teaching new users but I don't think that makes up for it. There are too many features that could have benefited from a rethinking or two. They need to get real. I mean, will people really use the feature-lacking blog editor confined to a small module? If that wasn't enough, the Webjam users have to manage 3 pages.
Look at these admin panel forms! They're way too cluttered together and lack styling.
In addition to the interface woes, Webjam feels a little sluggish and rightfully so - it loads over 10 JavaScript files to power all of its fancy effects. Speaking of JavaScript, I registered for Webjam in Safari and after submitting my form, it didn't show any sign that it had completed registering and just sat there. Clicking it again notified me that my email address was already in use... because it had made my account and logged me in. However, that was all fixed when it crashed Safari.
In a nutshell: Webjam is a community-centric service offering users customizable homepages that suffer from a poor user interface.