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I just got an email from pageonce, asking “Did you forget?” The reminder email let me know that:

We noticed that you haven’t visited Pageonce recently. While you’ve been away we have been busy making some important improvements to the site

To tell you the truth, you’re spot on, pageonce. I totally forgot. Thanks for the reminder, as I now have something to write about (hey, I’m dragging a bit today after staying up late to watch the Celtics win…).

What’s pageonce?

Pageonce bills itself as a Personal Internet Assistant. It’s really an account aggregator, letting you access all your different accounts in one place. They divide the account categories into:

• Finance
• Shopping
• Utilities
• Social & Fun
• Travel
• E-mail

Here’s what they say:

Pageonce – the free Personal Internet Assistant – has become a lifesaver to thousands of people just like you. With Pageonce you will:

• Always have a clear financial picture of bank balances, credit card limits, investments
• Never go over cell phone minutes or text limits again by getting usage alerts
• Get Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Gmail all at the same time
• Protect kids from inappropriate online contact & activity by monitoring their accounts
• Track purchases from Amazon, eBay and Costco
• Manage all family members’ frequent flyer accounts from one place
• Know what’s coming next from Netflix and be the first to get the latest new release
• Cure password amnesia forever by linking directly to all accounts from Pageonce
• Defend against identity theft & online fraud by being aware of account statuses in real time
• Avoid late fees by knowing when bills are due and paying them on time
• Increase the security of your Internet accounts by assigning different usernames and passwords to each account and managing them from Pageonce
• Have the ability to call customer service for any account provider with the click of a mouse right from

“So,” you say, “this sounds great. You must love this thing, right?” Well, no. And I can’t tell you why.

Here’s what it looks like when you log in:

And once you’ve added all your stuff:

I just don’t get it. This is exactly what I’ve been asking for: a place that controls all of my different accounts, giving me the ability to reign in all my different profiles. I should be jumping up and down with excitement, only I’m not.

And don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a criticism of pageonce. I’ve got nothing bad to say about the service. Setting up my account was easy, and it worked just as I thought it would.

So I guess I’m saying: “Pageonce, listen. It’s not you. It’s me.”

I think I’ve put my finger on the problem. It’s not that pageonce is lacking something, or that the experience there isn’t working for me. Nope. It’s the simple fact that I’m used to each of these sites individually, and have grown accustomed to the look, feel, tone and context of each of them. It’s the same problem I have with RSS readers: They’re great, they’re efficient, but I lose some of the familiarity I feel with the sites I regularly visit.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me.

P.S.- Tip of the hat to chelpixie for letting me know about pageonce.

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