There's no place like home
September 12, 2012 7:04 PM Subscribe
Please help me find a cool new homepage.
I never gave much thought to my homepage until it was recently changed by the ISP and I don't care for the makeover at all. It got me thinking that there have to be great homepages out there, and if anyone could suggest good ones, the folks at MeFi could.
I don't want anything customizable that I need to "log in" for. I'm looking for something that when I come home from work and turn on the computer and click on the Firefox icon, will give me a snapshot of news and events nationally and locally, some entertainment, some sports, maybe some silly trivia stuff, and weather (to name a few things I liked about my old homepage). I'd prefer it to be presented in a basic manner - I don't need all kinds of flash, but if the news/highlights were presented in a fun or unique way, that would be great.
My temporary home is now refdesk, but it has SO MUCH great stuff, I need something much more distilled and would like a site with more visual appeal and pictures.
So, hive mind, can you suggest a cool new site to be my new homepage? Thanks in advance for suggestions!
I never gave much thought to my homepage until it was recently changed by the ISP and I don't care for the makeover at all. It got me thinking that there have to be great homepages out there, and if anyone could suggest good ones, the folks at MeFi could.
I don't want anything customizable that I need to "log in" for. I'm looking for something that when I come home from work and turn on the computer and click on the Firefox icon, will give me a snapshot of news and events nationally and locally, some entertainment, some sports, maybe some silly trivia stuff, and weather (to name a few things I liked about my old homepage). I'd prefer it to be presented in a basic manner - I don't need all kinds of flash, but if the news/highlights were presented in a fun or unique way, that would be great.
My temporary home is now refdesk, but it has SO MUCH great stuff, I need something much more distilled and would like a site with more visual appeal and pictures.
So, hive mind, can you suggest a cool new site to be my new homepage? Thanks in advance for suggestions!
There's also uStart and Proto Page. Lots of people use Google Reader as a start page.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:12 PM on September 12, 2012
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:12 PM on September 12, 2012
Oh, please check out Pulse! You can customize it with a bunch of different news sources (local, too) and it's really fun to expand a story to read it without needing to open a new tab/window. It's also SO attractive. I got hooked on their iPad app, but now you can have it as your homepage on your PC and it's very cool. I started using it after hearing iGoogle would be discontinued (though it won't be for awhile, so I would still recommend you check that out, too, just don't get too attached!)
posted by thesocietyfor at 7:44 PM on September 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by thesocietyfor at 7:44 PM on September 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
Oh shoot, you do have to login and customize it (which is quick and you can stay logged in)...sorry, I got too excited about recommending it and I apologize if that doesn't fit your needs.
posted by thesocietyfor at 7:46 PM on September 12, 2012
posted by thesocietyfor at 7:46 PM on September 12, 2012
I like myway.com - simple and elegant, loads in seconds.
posted by yclipse at 8:25 PM on September 12, 2012
posted by yclipse at 8:25 PM on September 12, 2012
Best answer: I've liked popurls for this, you can customize it but you don't have to.
posted by jessamyn at 8:40 PM on September 12, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 8:40 PM on September 12, 2012 [2 favorites]
I'm a huge fan of about:blank - it makes my browser start up faster, it saves bandwidth, it doesn't need adblocking and it never steals keyboard focus from the address bar or search box I'm usually typing something into right after starting the browser.
Possibly a little minimalist for your taste, but I recommend giving it a try for at least a few days.
posted by flabdablet at 8:48 PM on September 12, 2012 [5 favorites]
Possibly a little minimalist for your taste, but I recommend giving it a try for at least a few days.
posted by flabdablet at 8:48 PM on September 12, 2012 [5 favorites]
Best answer: It's light on content, but I make the textually-NSFW-but-visually-SFW FuckingHomepage.com a part of my daily browsing ritual. Probably not enough to become a "homepage" however.
posted by revmitcz at 9:21 PM on September 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by revmitcz at 9:21 PM on September 12, 2012 [1 favorite]
Decorate your own home. Don't put up with something generic designed to appeal to Mr and Mrs Average.
I use Netvibes and I can't understand how most people apparently happily turn on their computers each day without something like it.
On the first tab on my home page I have headlines from a variety of local and international news sources, as well as my Twitter feed and Google Analytics for my commerce website. And then on subsequent tabs I subscribe to close to 100 RSS feeds for websites that I enjoy in areas like photography, design, cycling, Metafilter (both the blue and green), XKCD comics, etc. Additionally it shows a summary of my Ebay account.
And for each of these it lets me choose from simple text links, excerpts, images, slideshows.
It's not hard to do, and it means you get to see what's happening around the world and around the corner which will be of particular interest to you.
posted by puffmoike at 5:06 AM on September 13, 2012
I use Netvibes and I can't understand how most people apparently happily turn on their computers each day without something like it.
On the first tab on my home page I have headlines from a variety of local and international news sources, as well as my Twitter feed and Google Analytics for my commerce website. And then on subsequent tabs I subscribe to close to 100 RSS feeds for websites that I enjoy in areas like photography, design, cycling, Metafilter (both the blue and green), XKCD comics, etc. Additionally it shows a summary of my Ebay account.
And for each of these it lets me choose from simple text links, excerpts, images, slideshows.
It's not hard to do, and it means you get to see what's happening around the world and around the corner which will be of particular interest to you.
posted by puffmoike at 5:06 AM on September 13, 2012
Wow, refdesk is SCARY.
I use a combination of popurls, Facebook and Feedly. Since I got an iPad, feedly has seen a lot less use. Apps like Flipboard and Zite take the place of RSS (a fact that Feedly has actually begun to take notice of) but Feedly is a GREAT hub for RSS, twitter, Facebook etc. Subscribing to favourite sites is easy peasy
posted by 0bvious at 5:51 AM on September 13, 2012
I use a combination of popurls, Facebook and Feedly. Since I got an iPad, feedly has seen a lot less use. Apps like Flipboard and Zite take the place of RSS (a fact that Feedly has actually begun to take notice of) but Feedly is a GREAT hub for RSS, twitter, Facebook etc. Subscribing to favourite sites is easy peasy
posted by 0bvious at 5:51 AM on September 13, 2012
Another vote for Netvibes. I actually took a wide web page widget (available on their site) and embedded the NY Times Skimmer into it. Looks great and is really functional.
I have the times, my Google Calendar, Tasks, weather, and Twitter on the front page.
posted by cnc at 4:28 PM on September 13, 2012
I have the times, my Google Calendar, Tasks, weather, and Twitter on the front page.
posted by cnc at 4:28 PM on September 13, 2012
Netvibes is great and I use it everyday. NYTimes Skimmer is awesome too. Anymore like that?
posted by radsqd at 5:24 PM on September 13, 2012
posted by radsqd at 5:24 PM on September 13, 2012
@cnc Thanks for the NYT skinner link. Great addition to my home page.
posted by puffmoike at 7:28 PM on September 13, 2012
posted by puffmoike at 7:28 PM on September 13, 2012
Minimalist fan here as well, so these may or may not be to your liking:
Seconding about:blank.
I like to use Merlin Mann's undistraction when I have some work to be doing.
I would probably use WTF do I need to know if it was updated a lot more often.
posted by mnfn at 9:46 PM on September 13, 2012
Seconding about:blank.
I like to use Merlin Mann's undistraction when I have some work to be doing.
I would probably use WTF do I need to know if it was updated a lot more often.
posted by mnfn at 9:46 PM on September 13, 2012
Response by poster: Wow, thanks everyone for the great suggestions - even the customizable ones look cool. I'm going to have to take a few of these for test drive!
posted by NoraCharles at 6:38 AM on September 17, 2012
posted by NoraCharles at 6:38 AM on September 17, 2012
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posted by COD at 7:08 PM on September 12, 2012