

Fav4.org Is a Dead Simple but Very Attractive Start Page - ashishbharthi
http://fav4.org/

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

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mortenjorck
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.

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

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chuhnk
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.

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acid_bath
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.

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listic
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.

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mortenjorck
Ah, someone else gets this!

Ever since I started using Safari's "Top Sites" (procedurally generated Opera
Speed Dial), I've noticed a developing feedback loop in which I visit the
listed sites significantly more often than the non-listed ones. It's subtle,
but it's enough for me to reconsider my use of the feature.

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

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Zak
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.

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kentosi
Name of the firefox extension, please?

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endtime
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4810>

First result for "firefox speed dial".

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dawson
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!

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

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

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ashishbharthi
I have already submitted it as site suggestion.

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bhousel
why?

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Pistos2
Why not?

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sumeetjain
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.

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kentosi
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.

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necrecious
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.

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

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

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Timothee
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.

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

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sasmoray
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

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

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sasmoray
That is: <http://www.zenstart.com>

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panic
Looks nice, but why do I _have_ to choose 4?

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pbhjpbhj
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.

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

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pbhjpbhj
Ha, totally missed the name and just read it as fava, doh, brain surgeon to
aisle 3 please.

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

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mattdennewitz
gorgeous! i want this for 5 rss feeds.

