

Please review our startup Favetop.com - Internet Desktop - rooshdi
http://www.favetop.com/

======
j_baker
Well, the first thing I would ask is why do I need a web desktop? I hardly use
the non-web desktop I already have.

Secondly, (and this is based on playing with the site for 5 seconds) what are
you providing that my browser's bookmarks bar isn't?

~~~
jeromec
On average people visit the same 8 sites over and over. We feel this kind of
interface is more efficient, because it's meant to be set as a home page. This
way going from site to site only involves clicking the Home button and each
site. We also think it fits well with the trend toward touch screens on
devices like the iPad.

~~~
stevejalim
My gut reaction was: why would I bother going here rather than the Top Sites
(or equivalent) pane in Safari or Chrome or FF, which shows the sites I visit
most and doesn't require me to have _another_ account elsewhere?

Don't get me wrong - I really applaud everyone who gets an idea out there to
market, but I just can't see the use-case for this being common enough.

( _Thinks more_ Unless you're going for IE users, perhaps?)

~~~
jeromec
The best answer I can give that is we feel a browser based solution is best,
because your favorite content can be accessed from any computer.

~~~
stevejalim
That is a fair point. I guess because I'm a laptop user, I almost entirely use
my own machine for the web, rather than a work box and a home box, or access
from an internet cafe etc, but there are still plenty of people out there who
would benefit. I think adriand's point about it being great for young kids is
really strong, too. Best of luck with it!

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adriand
I've actually been thinking of building a simple homepage like this for a
while for my son, who is two. He has trouble with the bookmarks tab right now
(although I just started teaching him to use it, so he'll probably get better
quickly!) But I think a homepage with icons would be helpful for him. And I
think that spinning it as child-friendly could be a good route for you.

Question: is there a way to eliminate the tabs and just have all of your
content, whether it's games, videos, whatever, piled up on one page?

I realize I could answer the question myself, however, I don't really like
your privacy policy. If that policy is one you just lifted from somewhere
else, you may want to customize it further. I would like to see somewhere in
there that you will not transfer my data to third parties.

~~~
jeromec
We are looking at giving users customization options under Settings. As heavy
Internet users ourselves, we're on the user's side when it comes to privacy.
We never monitor user activity or transfer data to third policies. We do need
to update our privacy policy.

------
sjsivak
I think the idea is a great one, just not for this audience. Hackers use the
desktop as little as possible, but my mother clutters her desktop with
EVERYTHING.

Personally, I think you are on a good path. After using it briefly it felt
pretty good. The biggest problem you will have is getting traction (as others
have mentioned), and I do not really have any good ideas on how to solve that.

~~~
spking
I agree with this sentiment. It's difficult to gauge broader market appeal on
a site like HN if your app is better suited for the "average" person. We all
tend to look at stuff through our developer/hacker/designer/startup lenses and
lose sight of the fact that 99% of people will evaluate what you've built in a
far different light than this crowd. At your next family reunion, see how many
people have heard of Dropbox, Basecamp or Xobni.

My advice to the creator(s): Don't get discouraged. This is a cool idea and
most importantly, you've _shipped_ something. Keep going.

~~~
jeromec
I also agree, but I still think the HN community is great for getting
feedback. It's true that we're not really aimed at hackers. However, a similar
site to us AllMyFaves.com just hit 100M page views
([http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6U_mVE_...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6U_mVE_qOVoJ:ns1.allmyfaves.com/index.php+allmyfaves+million&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)),
and I doubt HN users would use them either. Thanks for the encouragement!

------
jackqu7
Why do I have to sign up to start using this? I think people would be more
likely to try it if they didn't have to cross that barrier.

You should have it so using it on one machine just works and requires no
signup, then have an option to add a user/pass at a later stage.

~~~
pedalpete
agreed. you could use a cookie/ip or something initially to set the user
account

------
niyazpk
You are doing a great job of _telling_ me what the site is about, but you
should also _show_ how it actually looks/works.

I see that it is a website to save/share stuff and I am not sure whether to
sign up or not because I don't know what the actual inner pages are going to
look like. Is it as simple as the home page etc or will it get more
complicated and difficult to use? There are a lot of sites that does this same
thing and why should someone sign up for this site? Some screenshots or video
demo would be helpful in this case.

But again, my biggest problem with the site is that I still don't understand
what problem it solves.

~~~
jeromec
Thanks for the helpful feedback. Communicating how our site works in a quick
way remains a big challenge for us, and we will certainly keep working to
improve that. As for the problem it solves, we think it solves a few, but one
example would be the ability to hold on to videos that might be watched more
than once.

------
mikedmiked
I actually want a new homepage something a bit like this. I currently use
either iGoogle (as it has lots of widgets which I can quickly use - e.g. GPS
phone locator) or chrome default homepage (I like the big icons showing what
the page actually looks like rather than a websites logo - helps you find the
site faster).

I will usually only use the homepage when I first open the browser, as after
that I can click bookmarks. I want the homepage to probably have a few rss
feeds and some big buttons to click on and go to a new site.

Specific to your site: I wont ever use the video, games, photos, music tabs -
and would like the choices to remove those tabs. My homepage must have no
information that I do not need. I want it to be more streamlined and slick
than a skinned rabbit covered in grease. I didnt want most of the default
links on the web tab - and removing them individually was a pain as it took so
long There is a bit too much space at the top of the page. the distance
between the top bar and the search bar and the "tabs" bar should be decreased
imo. "Feedback" on bottom of page is misspelt :)

So currently I would choose iGoogle. But I would try it for a while if there
were choices on icon sizes, rss feeds, and a few optional widgets e.g.
calculators, and there are options to hide all features which I dont want to
see in settings.

~~~
jeromec
That's great feedback. We may eventually have that kind of customization under
Settings. In fact, we've actually discussed exactly those things (and a lot
more!), but we wanted to start with a core set of features and evolve from
there.

~~~
mikedmiked
Great, Ill keep checking back. thanks!

------
arpitnext
I would certainly use favetop for aggregating videos and music. This feature
is just awesome. I agree with others - bookmarks are best for launching links
and webapps, specially when you are using ONE computer and only ONE browser.

Well, a question to site owners: do you track my clicks on links?? ;)

~~~
jeromec
We don't track individual user activity. We're huge believers in privacy.
Profiles and content are also private by default.

------
kyrai
The site's UI is way to boring. Even if its suppose to be simple. Also being a
programmer in my own right, I was looking at the source and using tables with
spacers? I mean come on, its 2010.. Also another thing I am noticing is, is
every bit of your application all in one directory? I am seeing files like
indexg.php, gamesg.php. I may be wrong but that might make it really hard to
pick up any more developers or investors who are a little tech savvy. Just my
2 cents. Good luck though.

~~~
jeromec
Yes, our own designer complained about that too, but because our app is meant
to be used across a wide range of users and computer configurations we opted
to go with a more consistent set up, since it's the same from the user
perspective. And the scripts make use of includes ;)

~~~
kyrai
When you say a more consistent setup, I hope you are not referring to the fact
tables are used, because changing the theme for a certain user is MUCH easier
to do in css. Okay since you mentioned includes, your obviously a lower end
developer. Have you ever heard of OOP or MVC? But I guess if it works, why
question it.

~~~
jeromec
Yes, I agree, and that may be what we use in the future, but to meet our early
goals, which is getting something stable out the door that's the plan we used.
My primary objective isn't programming/architecture debates (or prizes) it's
simply getting satisfied users. It's like you say, we're focused on what
works.

------
captaincrunch
I prefer bookmarks, and google is more useful as my homepage.

------
secret
I like it. I use to have something like the web tab that I had made for
myself, but this is obviously more complete. I think the delete function
should be more obvious (maybe something like how the iphone deletes apps) and
when I add sites, it would be nice to see a list of icons for at least the
most popular options.

------
daeken
While I don't think I'm at all within the target market (as has been discussed
elsewhere in the thread), but I had to give you kudos for the way you present
it to the user. It very quickly shows you why they should use your service and
what they may be able to get out of it. Good job.

------
edkennedy
I tried using an internet wallpaper, <http://fav4.org> and it does this in a
prettier way. Additionally, it's engaging and simpler. I still switched back
to Safari's homepage and don't think I could be moved away from it.

------
Kilimanjaro
Interesting...

Bookmarklets can help a lot in saving videos, pics, read-later links, etc

------
JesseAldridge
Why not put everything on one page? I'd rather scroll then click tabs.

~~~
jeromec
That had never occurred to us. However, we consider ourselves an Internet
Desktop, so like a PC we want to allow users some customization (possibly
including their own design themes). Under the Settings we may include that as
an option if there is enough demand for it, but we also believe in fast
loading pages, so that would be one drawback.

~~~
nfnaaron
"but we also believe in fast loading pages"

Is that for your benefit, or your users? Either way is a good answer, I just
think you should know the answer. The word "believe" prompted this comment.

If you have icons 1-10 on tab A, and icons 11-20 on tab B, then tab B loads
really, really slow, i.e. never until you click it. So you have fast access to
icons 1-10 and really slow access to icons 11-20.

An option in the Settings would (eventually) be good.

------
nizzay
Was this site coded in 1992? Viewing the source code it sure seems like it..

Spacer images? No thanks Favetop!

~~~
theoneill
If you had to view source before you were sure, then it can't be a real
problem, can it?

------
apphacker
If I refresh this page after creating an account it continuously doubles all
of the icons on that page (first time one amazon icon, one Facebook icon, one
of all the other icons, second time two of each, next time four, etc until it
gets ridiculous):

<http://www.favetop.com/index.php?actn=re>

~~~
jeromec
That bug is fixed. Thanks.

------
petervandijck
Trying to become the starting page. This has been done since the 90s (see
<http://www.startpagina.nl/> etc). I don't see the need for it, and I don't
see how you'll ever compete against the likes of google, yahoo etc. Not gonna
work, sorry.

