Fav4.org Is a Dead Simple but Very Attractive Start Page

http://fav4.org/

by ashishbharthi • 16 years ago

56 47 16 years ago

fav4.org

ashishbharthi2• 16 years ago

I think this is what Favorites/welcome page of a browser should look like.

Timothee2• 16 years ago

This is what the "Top Sites" feature of Safari is trying to accomplish. But it didn't convince me so much…

lr• 16 years ago

It would be great if Safari (and the others) had an option of either the page content (which is what they do now), or just a nice image like fav4.

aw3c2• 16 years ago

Like Opera's Speed Dial?

huhtenberg• 16 years ago

As per usual - Opera had this in a form of its "speed dial" page for a while now, Still using the Firefox though :)

samdk• 16 years ago

This is basically what the blank 'new tab' page in Chrome is. (Except that that shows eight links instead of four.)

Zak• 16 years ago

Opera has done that for a while. Safari and Chrome have it. It's available as an extension for Firefox. It looks like there's even an IE addon with similar functionality.

kentosi2• 16 years ago

Name of the firefox extension, please?

mattdennewitz• 16 years ago

gorgeous! i want this for 5 rss feeds.

Timothee2• 16 years ago

I was thinking of something like this when the Facebook login story on RWW came out a week or two ago. With a start page that looks like an [iPhone|Android|your favorite device] screen , there's less risks of being confused.

synnik• 16 years ago

Attractive, yes. But why, exactly, is this better than my browser's bookmarks?

georgekv• 16 years ago

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_wants_to_be_yo...

Maybe this?

jackowayed• 16 years ago

How is this related whatsoever?

mortenjorck2• 16 years ago

This could be better than your browser's bookmarks. While I appreciate the simplicity of it, it's too simple as it is now. The potential benefit here is in hierarchy, which bookmarks generally lack. How about this:

4 links at the big 128 x 128 size. The sites you check every session.

8 links at 64 x 64. The ones you use pretty frequently.

16 links at 32 x 32.

And heck, maybe 32 at 16x16.

I would use that.

badave• 16 years ago

Hmm... might have to build that for my own use.

DougBTX• 16 years ago

FWIW, Chrome comes with 8 200x130 frequent sites, 8 or so top bookmarks, and 5 or so recent tabs.

Groxx• 16 years ago

It's... shinier?

Not to imply that's degrading it, lots of people have trouble handling the bookmarks menu, and this is much more graphically memorable / understandable, so it's likely they could get it more easily. The buttons are also bigger, which (though I'm HUGELY against large browser chrome) can be useful.

dawson• 16 years ago

I get excited by these services (iGoogle, Netvibes) and end-up using them for about a week before defaulting back to google's homepage. Love Fav4's design though!

pavel_lishin• 16 years ago

I just slap those links in my bookmark bar, and start on about:blank

wonsungi• 16 years ago

Try http://www.bkmks.com: (Google) search box at the top; organize your favorite links below via drag & drop. Fast and simple.

I just wish it had tabs and easy/multiple delete (I hacked together a javascript bookmarklet to work around the multiple-clicks-to-delete-a-single-link issue)

mdolon• 16 years ago

Made something like this before but never made it public, though mine looks more like the iPhone home screen.

panic• 16 years ago

Looks nice, but why do I have to choose 4?

pbhjpbhj2• 16 years ago

Because more will be available in the registered version once the freemium users have thoroughly tested things?

Because they're harvesting the data and want to ensure that even less popular pages get some ranking data?

Couldn't quickly think of any other reasons.

ryanwaggoner• 16 years ago

Because that's the domain they could get? :)

bwag2• 16 years ago

Looks beautiful, but I don't see a Hacker News icon anywhere in their list of available sites.

ashishbharthi2• 16 years ago

I have already submitted it as site suggestion.

bhousel• 16 years ago

why?

chuhnk• 16 years ago

I love it. I think it's really great, and I'll tell you why.

First, simplicity. I think websites as a whole suffer from information overload and the simpler something is the easier it is to use, which makes it accessible to everyone.

Second, the design. Its great, why not have favourites as icons? Every website now has a logo which marks their brand, we've become accustomed to viewing them everywhere so its easy enough to look at it and know exactly what it is. Its brilliant, visual and the kind of steps others should be taking in terms of UX.

Third, its on the web. Safari, firefox and chrome start pages are in your local browser, but we dont all use the same machine everyday do we? I switch between 2 or 3 as I'm at work, then at home or at a friends.

My only thought would be, I want to see more than 4 icons without ruining the visual. If you can achieve that then I'm sold.

acid_bath• 16 years ago

Eh, I think it's a solution in search of a problem.

Other than looking cool, if you timed yourself, I bet it's much faster to just type it.

(on my mac):

Cmd + L

type "gm" (gmail.com is now highlighted in the dropdown because it's one of the 4 most frequent websites I visit and FF is smart enough to know I probably want it)

Enter

Total time: Less than it takes for fav4.org to load.

aaronbrethorst• 16 years ago

Or, in Safari, you can invoke your bookmark bar favorites by pressing Cmd+[1-9], where 1-9 matches its position.

I have Gmail as the left-most item in my bar and access it by pressing Cmd+1.

listic• 16 years ago

Yep. Plus I hate being always told what to do; I fear it helps to kill my creativity. That's why I always set start page to blank and turn off Opera's speed dial forever (after admiring it for a while).

That said, a solution is nice.

UPDATE: Hm, now I think I could set my homepage to this, but leave start page as blank. This way I won't be distracted the moment I start the browser, yet be able to reach this launchpad with a press of "Home" button whenever I want to.

mhartl• 16 years ago

Cmd-L gm down-arrow is my algorithm to get to Gmail, too, and so on for other common sites I visit. I thought I was the only one.

rabidgnat• 16 years ago

I'm sure that it's not great, having never heard of Fav4.org before today. I landed on the page and saw 4 buttons with links to pages that I visit regularly. "That's great, but I already have them bookmarked," I thought.

I closed the tab, but decided it wouldn't have been on HN if it was just 4 links. At that point I returned to the site and saw the "Settings" button in the bottom corner.

A landing page that hides the purpose of a webpage will cost you users in the long run

bwag2• 16 years ago

"Third, its on the web. Safari, firefox and chrome start pages are in your local browser, but we dont all use the same machine everyday do we? I switch between 2 or 3 as I'm at work, then at home or at a friends."

Except that it uses cookies. So, no.

sumeetjain• 16 years ago

I use http://start.io for the same service.

It's as simple and attractive, but I can add more links and very basically organize them.

gxs• 16 years ago

Hm. I prefer the google chrome homepage to this. It is also simple and displays the sites it knows you visit regularly.

martythemaniak• 16 years ago

The difference between "simple" and "trivial" is functionality. Unlike the Safari/Chrome/Opera startpages, this is utterly, utterly useless.

kentosi2• 16 years ago

Looks nice, and would probably be a great recommendation to relatives or friends.

On a site such as "hacker news", where the majority of users would be fast-typing power users, I think we would prefer to stick to our blank homepage and type what we need in the address bar.

Personally, I use the bookmarks toolbar in forefox / ie for my top 4 links.

est• 16 years ago

It's funny because three out of four are completely or partially blocked in China.

necrecious• 16 years ago

Looks like a web version of Safari's Top Site. Except Top Site is a grid. You can place favs in to a particular square, but recent websites you visit a lot will show up automatically on available squares.

Hmm, actually a social version of this might be very interesting. Based on your fav sites, other popular fav sites will be recommended to you.

payjo• 16 years ago

I prefer the chrome homepage like many others have said. Not really sure how useful this really is.

sasmoray2• 16 years ago

Fav4.org is nice, but I agree - a bit to simple. There is an alternative - zenstart. It has a Goolge seach box and the 150 most popular links: www.zenstart.com

sasmoray2• 16 years ago

That is: http://www.zenstart.com

Fav4.org Is a Dead Simple but Very Attractive Start Page

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