Tech-y StartPage

I have spent hours upon hours trying to find the “perfect” startpage. I have come to the conclusion that there is none; at least for me. I want a way to include feeds, mail, pictures of Hob and Istar, my Vimeo vids, my calendar, and more. All of the startpages pretty much offer these things, but in different ways.

I, like many others, started with igoogle, which was fun for about 15 minutes. Not too long after I designed my page to my satisfaction, they forced a lot of dead space on users by moving the tabbar to the left. That, and the fact that theming is so very limited meant that I needed an alternative, which led me to Netvibes. Netvibes is one of the best presented options I’ve used, but the lack of true customization leaves me a little unsatisfied (for instance, there is only one theme that does not have glaringly white widget backgrounds and the “extra” customizations, such as tabs, look cheap). Do not let their claim to have 1000s of widgets woo you…most are third party widgets, which always look tacky and include links to the widget’s “home”. Blech.

Pageflakes was my next trial, and I really like the flexibility it offers, but the native design looks very 1995, and not in a good way. It is by far the worst looking option, but has some really great flakes. Shame, really.

While searching for ways to overcome the issues I have with the above-mentioned sites, I found a link to Protopage. This is my preferred page, and I love it up to 95%. The lack of love is for an (apparently) outdated feed reader that can’t even find half the feeds I give the exact address for. I can circumvent this problem by using Feedburner feeds, which seem to work 100% of the time, but it’s still a gripe. Another gripe I had was that my thumbnail images weren’t showing up in my own feeds, but they were in everyone else’s feeds. I solved that problem by not using the “singlepic” function of the Nextgen Gallery plugin. Again, this is a non-issue with other readers, so I’m not sure why Protopage can’t handle them. Since there is no real calendar option beyond the most basic, I’m able to use my ics calendar from Netvibes, and include it as a widget on Protopage by use of the “webpage” widget. Niiiice. Widgets can be free positioned and resized, colored any way you want, and choosing a background is much easier than in other services. There are basic ads at the top of the screen, but you can close them forever (or until you reload) with one click, then they collapse. Not too bad.

The latest, and definitely most fun, option I found this weekend is Schmedley. Since Schmedley is so new, there is very little to choose from, but given a few more “schmidgets” and the option to resize the schmidgets (they are HUGE), this will become my favorite. The Gmail reader is wonky as hell, as it pulls emails from archived and trashed mail and never from my inbox, but the POP Mail seems to work a little better. The retro design of the logo and amazingly cool backgrounds make this a top contender for me. I just hope development continues!

If you try any of these out, let me know what you think!

7,732 thoughts on “Tech-y StartPage”

  1. Nice post. I was checking continuously this
    blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially
    the last part 🙂 I care for such info much.
    I was looking for this certain info for a long time.
    Thank you and best of luck.

  2. What’s up, its fastidious article regarding media print, we all know media is a wonderful source of facts.my blog post the founder and president of Robinson Helicopter Company

  3. Hi there, I believe your site could possibly be having browser compatibility problems. When I take a look at your website in Safari, it looks fine however when opening in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping issues. I simply wanted to give you a quick heads up! Other than that, excellent website!

  4. You can certainly see your skills in the work you write.
    The sector hopes for more passionate writers such as you who are not afraid to say how they believe.
    At all times go after your heart.

  5. Hey There. I discovered your blog the usage of msn. This is an extremely neatly
    written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and return to learn more of your helpful information. Thanks for the post.
    I will certainly return.

  6. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Chrome.

    I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something
    to do with web browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let
    you know. The style and design look great
    though! Hope you get the issue fixed soon. Thanks

  7. May I simply just say what a comfort to uncover someone that truly knows what they are talking about on the internet. You certainly understand how to bring an issue to light and make it important. A lot more people have to read this and understand this side of your story. It’s surprising you aren’t more popular given that you certainly possess the gift.

  8. Hello there! This post couldn’t be written much better!Looking at this post reminds me of my previous roommate!He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post to him.Fairly certain he’ll have a very good read. Many thanks for sharing!

  9. What are you waiting on? Beginning preparing your journey to Prague currently and discover what this spectacular city has to supply! Whether traveling alone, with close friends or family members, or on a romantic escape, Prague will surely leave an remarkable perception.

  10. Whoa! This blog looks just like my old one! It’s on a entirely
    different topic but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Excellent choice of colors!

  11. Hi! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with
    hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several
    weeks of hard work due to no back up. Do you have any solutions to
    prevent hackers?

  12. I like the helpful info you provide in your articles. I will
    bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly.
    I’m quite certain I’ll learn plenty of new stuff right here!
    Best of luck for the next!

  13. It’s in reality a nice and helpful piece of info. I’m
    glad that you just shared this helpful information with us.
    Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.

  14. Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after looking at many of the posts I realized it’s new to me. Anyways, I’m definitely pleased I came across it and I’ll be book-marking it and checking back often!

  15. An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who was
    conducting a little homework on this. And he in fact
    bought me dinner because I discovered it for him… lol. So
    allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanx for spending some time to talk about this matter
    here on your blog.

  16. Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you
    relied on the video to make your point. You definitely know
    what youre talking about, why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?

  17. Hello there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’sreally informative. I’m going to watch out for brussels.I’ll appreciate if you continue this in future. Numerous people will be benefited from your writing.Cheers!

  18. Hello there! I could have sworn I’ve been to this website before but after going through many of the articles I realized it’s new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I discovered it and I’ll be bookmarking it and checking back often!

  19. I do agree with all the ideas you have presented in your post. They are very convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for beginners. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.

  20. I do accept as true with all the ideas you have offered on your post.
    They are very convincing and can definitely work.
    Still, the posts are very brief for novices. May you please lengthen them a bit from next time?
    Thank you for the post.

  21. I absolutely love your site.. Great colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself? Please reply back as I’m planning to create my very own website and would like to find out where you got this from or exactly what the theme is called. Many thanks.

  22. Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was extremely long) so I guess
    I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog.
    I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing.
    Do you have any points for novice blog writers? I’d certainly appreciate it.

  23. Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is
    an extremely smartly written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to learn more of your useful info.

    Thanks for the post. I will definitely comeback.

Leave a Reply to Shavonne Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *