The 5 Best Start Page Services to Start Your Morning
A start page, or “startpage”, is meant to give you access to all those sites and tools you start your day with, on a single page. Startpages ensure that you don’t have to open several tabs and windows for email, news, important websites etc. You’ve got everything right there in one view.
If you haven’t tried a startpage yet, you could get started with one of the following and see if it makes you more productive.
1. Netvibes
When it comes to start pages, Netvibes usually gets the conversation started. And it deserves the accolades it gets for being the best start page. Not only it was (probably) the first one to introduce this concept, over the years it has adapted well to changes and now boasts of a cool new features that could give all the new players a run for their money.
2. iGoogle
iGoogle, like Netvibes, is feature-rich and powerful. The main advantage being its obvious integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Reader etc, that makes it more attractive to Google loyalists (a huge number by the way).
3. Pageflakes
Pageflakes is another cool startpage that’s been there for sometime. It comes with some nice default tabs and lets you quickly get started.
4. MyFav.es
What separates MyFav.es from the above mentioned tools is its minimalistic interface. It’s easy to customize and looks beautiful too.
5. Speeddial
Last but not the least, we’ve got the default Chrome/Opera Speedial page that shows huge snapshots of most visited sites. Certainly saves you the effort and time to open a new tab and type the website address.
So, do you use a startpage? Is it one of the above?
I use Morning Coffee Firefox Add-on. Its very nice!
Yea, but you have to manage firefox on al your devices and it doesent sync them… a startpage like http://www.tizit.com is a much better solution
Use veoam.com the descent one……Its cool
http://www.veoam.com/
Speed Dial has a firefox extension too. It’s what i use.
I’m using iGoogle, i think that is very good.
iGoogle doesn’t have anything but a search box.
Nice post!
I prefer start my internet activities with speed dial, but iGoogle also is a smart choice!
I use iGoogle … love it! As you stated, it’s a great way to bring all your “startup” sites together in one organized space …
iGoogle has been my startpage for a little while now. I like it.
However, at work, my startpage is National Geographic. I like starting my day with the latest amazing pictures taken on our planet. Soothing !
I enjoy netvibes. I wrote up a post about it not that long ago. http://www.digitizd.com/2010/01/29/netvibes-your-launchpad-to-the-web-2/
So far I found feedly the best. Its fireFox add on.
It works with google reader bookmarks, account and has lots of features.
http://www.zenstart.com is a nice simple startpage
For the hardcore feed readers, you should consider buying Fever. It’s an excellent start page that shows you the hottest items among your feeds.
http://feedafever.com/
I Like MyFav.es 🙂
Doesn’t work, says something is broken.
I’d prefer to use iGoogle, it’s simple & useable
I’m using http://www.yvoid.com/ .
It’s easy to use and has a simple layout.
And when i’m using netvibes I sometimes get a headache because it’s filled with stuff and igoogle too.
Im using http://www.newsgar.com/ as startpage, simple and perfect if you like to read newspapers
I use http://www.aboogy.com in combination with iGoogle .
I love http://tizit.com great start page lots of options!
Nice Post!!
Lately I have been using http://www.bridox.com
It’s way more minimalistic than most start pages.
iGoogle is alright too.
NetVibes was definitely not the “first one to introduce this concept.” My Yahoo! had been doing this for years, but this space didn’t get competitive until 2007 or 2008 when NetVibes and iGoogle came on the scene.
I agree with Frank, http://www.tizit.com is by far the best start page I have seen
I use http://www.sevego.com . It is very easy to use.
I have also heard about it from a collegue. It is very useful. I have made it my startpage. Also, I have made my oma’s pc at home 🙂
As the author of this work may I point your attention to NetVibes being closed and iGoogle going the same direction next year. An update to your article would be most helpful.
Pretty soon Yahoo will be the only “start page” provider with any content available without using wigets to simply bookmark pages and display thumbnails of them on a saved webpage.
Yourls allows you to create a very simple startpage around your favorite bookmarks.
Nollr (nollr.com) is a new start page project currently in beta. Its an entirely web-based start page, and built to flex to the user’s device — so its accessible on all your devices (laptop, tablet, mobile) regardless of browser, hardware, or software. It handles everything from images, to videos, to web apps like calculators and weather widgets. Its free and all about being open and transparent. Give it a look!
I found yourls.com and using it, I find its simplicity convenient to use. This could be a new alternative startpage to iGoogle. I think is in beta phase yet. Looking forward to seeing it get developed.
I wanted something basic to shortcut to the sites I use and ended up with http://www.semporium.com
Even set up an account for work and one for home. Love being able to load up my browser and have everything there 🙂
Thanks for the nice post. I am using sevego ( http://www.sevego.com ) for 3-4 months. I am very happy about it. It is simple, and easy to distinguish my favourite websites thanks to big logos. Also, on the smart phone it is very useful.
I like BestHomepageEver.com. It’s an ad-free site that is simple and useful for accessing all of your favorite websites in one spot.
I am using Driigo.com, its the best start page i have ever tried.
I used iGoogle, i loved it and use it daily! But, because it’s flying away i’m really looking for an alternative since the. One startpage that will totally strike you as beautifully different is http://www.startific.com – don’t know if it’s exactly an iGoogle replacement, but it’s just wow.
I use http://www.dodego.com which is very user-friendly.I recommend it to everyone.
For USA users I recommend http://usa.goldnaut.com
Great internet startpage with timezones, searchfields etc
Just a quick update: there’s a new start page out there called Favepad – http://favepad.com/
It’s a customizable speed dial-style page, with dynamic widgets for the most popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and so on. You get your unread messages counters and news feeds right within the widgets, so you see the full picture at the moment you open the browser.
Been using it for about a week now, and I like it a lot, so I thought I would share.