PageOnce brings your online accounts to your smartphone

October 20, 2008 | Anthony Ha

PageOnce, a startup that wants users to access all their web accounts through a single site, is now bringing its service to the BlackBerry. The company’s free mobile application has already found some success on the iPhone, and chief executive Guy Goldstein says smartphones have become his focus.

“This is our business now,” he says.

Back in June, Palo Alto, Calif.-based PageOnce launched as your standard web-based business, and I was already impressed by the concept. It allows you to access your Gmail, Amazon and Facebook accounts, as well as many more, from a single page. The most popular component involves bringing all your financial information together, so you can almost think of PageOnce as a version of financial supersite Mint that doesn’t focus exclusively on money. Goldstein says the standard site is still up and running — after all, it’s still easiest to set up and add accounts using your computer — but the mobile side brings out a lot of Pageonce’s utility. For example, if you just have a few minutes to kill while you wait in line at Starbucks, you can whip out your phone and immediately bring up an overview of your finances.

The free iPhone application has been downloaded 200,000 times, Goldstein says, and the BlackBerry app should achieve similar popularity, since it’s a logical fit with the business-oriented smartphone. PageOnce’s business model is based mainly on advertising (Goldstein says the company may charge for the BlackBerry app when it leaves beta testing), and of course that’s a bit risky as the economy slows down. But PageOnce may be able to weather the storm better than most, since the ads are targeted, and can also be tailored to the smartphones’ features. Usage, meanwhile, has actually gone up during the current financial crisis, with people becoming more anxious to track their plummeting portfolios.

Goldstein gave me a quick demo of the iPhone and BlackBerry apps last week. They have virtually all the functionality of the normal PageOnce website, and appear well-designed, so you can get a quick overview of your accounts, then drill down with ease. Putting this much power into your smartphone also presents some security risks, but PageOnce has taken steps to avoid trouble. For example, if you lose your phone, tell PageOnce and the company will make the app “self-destruct” on your device.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony Ha writes about enterprise technology, cloud computing, tech policy, and random cool startups. Before joining VentureBeat in January 2008, he worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. Anthony attended Stanford University from 2001 to 2006, and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com.

  • Nice post. I'd be interested in seeing how this compares to FriendFeed. Both offer the ability to track feeds and activities among various sites on the web. PageOnce looks to go one step further and also track web services that you use. Is the data 2-way or 1-way?
  • I believe the data is 2-way. Also, while FriendFeed and PageOnce may have some similarities on a conceptual level, in terms of focus and execution they feel very different.
  • seriously...
    how can you not address security? Do you really feel comfortable giving out logins and passwords to all your bank, mileage plus, paypal, etc? seems kinda sketchy to me. Pageonce has not been OK'd by paypal, so when I tried to access my paypal account through Pageone, it locked up and I had to call to get it reactivated. I eventually reset my usernames and passes for my credit card and banks because I don't feel comfortable allowing a 3rd party service to access that stuff. Nice idea, but until it's fully integrated and backed by credit cards and banks, I'm out.
  • I addressed the major security concern about smartphones at the end of this post; as far as more general security issues go, I discussed them (albeit briefly) when the site launched, so it seemed silly to go over them again.

    In short, I agree you've got some valid concerns, which some other users will share. It does look like PageOnce has taken steps to make the site secure (getting certification from McAfee HackerSafe, VeriSign and TRUSTe).