The Google Chrome extension Incredible Startpage offers an alternative to the standard start page of the browser. It replaces the standard new tab page with a new one. This new page displays four elements on the screen including the recently closed tabs (with no link to the history), the bookmarks, a selected bookmarks folder and a note.

The bookmarks folder that is displayed in detail is adorned with a Flickr background image. A total of four different Flickr keywords and five color schemes are available to pretty up the start page.

The note could be interesting to some Chrome users. Notes can be added to the start page that stay on the page even after closing the web browser so that they can be read again on the next startup which is handy for reminders. It is furthermore possible to post the note to Gmail directly from within the start pages interface.

Incredible StartPage prettifies the Google Chrome blank tab page. This comes at the cost of roughly 30 Megabytes of computer memory that the extension needs.

The extension for the Chrome web browser can be downloaded and installed directly from the Google Chrome extensions gallery.

The options that are currently provided pale in comparison to services like Netvibes which have been able to test and shape their product in the last years. Users can add RSS feed contents to tabs on the portal page to access the latest feed contents promptly.

It is possible to add preselected feeds that come in various categories like sports, technology or stocks and money market or to add custom RSS feeds by providing the RSS feed url. Registered users can also import opml files so that all of their RSS feeds are added at once.

The modules on the pages can be moved around (even across tabs) named and deleted. The only other options that guests get are the selection of a different color scheme, changing the country and language and disabling advertisement.

Users who want to register an account can signup with their Opera, Google, OpenID or Yahoo username. Registered users on the other hand are not offered any more choices to customize the startpage than guests. Opera Portal is definitely a beta product at this time as it lacks features that go beyond adding and viewing RSS feeds. It should also be noted that the portal continued displaying German content after switching to English and the United States.

It could become an interesting alternative to established personalized homepage services if the developers continue working on the project and start adding additional features to it. The prime advantage of Opera Portal at this point in time is that guests have access to all functions and features of the portal.