I came across Symbaloo – http://www.symbaloo.com/en/ – a web 2.0 personlized homepage. Although its not yet translated fully to english. I advise you to click the "nieuws" link, what means news, as it is a bit like google news image view, yet better worked out (at the top right of the news page, there is the option to switch to different topics).

At the top left of the standard page there are 5 google search services: Google, Vertaling (google translate) and nieuws (google news search) and in the middle there is a link to gmail. Although this is a REAL beta, it does looks like it has a future.

[Link fixed – Tony]

PS. I was wrong, it is already translated into english and a lot of other languages, but when changing the url, only certain parts are switched to english...