Widget startpages are usually services one would equate with Netvibes or  iGoogle.  but what if you wanted to have your own in browser start page not hosted online?. that is the concept of Eclectic.

A Widget Startpage creator and manager for Internet Explorer (it supports from 5 to 8). you clip content you want from the web. be it from websites or even clipping widgets with a common online location from different services and then you put it into a canvas that lives in a tab of Internet Explorer. from there you can manage, personalize and create not just one startpage but many if you wish.

It is pretty much like a mix of IE8 Web Slices with netvibes.

Electic is a add-on so you do need to install it. it is not a web service since it lives locally with your browser. it also can be set to act apart or integrated with IE. this means that if you only want to see your startpage at certain times. you only need to use the Eclectic desktop shortcut so it loads up IE with Eclectic as the default page. if you load up IE with your regular shortcut you will only load IE with a default page instead.

You can also integrate it if you want to by loading it up Eclectic one and then set it as your default page so it appears always whenever you use the browser.

I like the idea and the concept behind Eclectic. unfortunately it is quite resource intensive in my tests and can grab from 100 to 200mb of ram that get added to your regular Internet Explorer RAM consume.  i still would like to see a more stylized  (since the current design is a little bit dated) and tuned version of it. Eclectic use should be out of the question for OLD PC`s and for Low end netbook. but can be used with ease from a mid range PC and up.

Eclectic