StART - Your homepage reinvented!

[Jase]

Hey fellow Neowinians, how are you today? I hope you're doing well, let me introduce you to a project i've been working on for a while now;

 

 

 

This is stART: http://thinqtek.com/start

A homepage of beautiful bookmarks and images. Although...That's only the.. Start.

We Do Not collect users settings and data.

A new way to "Start" your browsing experience, we aim to make it the best possible browsing experience.

I do apologies, for some strange reason I cant insert images or screenshots into this post, i'll try again tomorrow.

Current Features Available of stArt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Customisable Bookmarks

- Elegant minimal design

- A Large selection of Images to use from Reddit, Bing or Chromecast

- Custom Reddit Sort Options – Top, Hot or New

- Custom Image Library - Use your own images

- Search window with latest news, photos and videos - Start your day with all the latest and greatest information available at your fingertips)

- Widgets (still in beta) - Add your IP & Time on the homescreen. Currently working on weather & several other widgets

- HTPC Ready! - we have taken into consideration that browsing on a HTPC is a must and with start we don’t forget about you guys, StART is HTPC ready and works with keyboard or remote control.. simply bind the keys to the remote using the "Hot Keys" info available in the settings page

and heaps more, Dive into the open beta and see for yourself what StART can do

 

What is coming in future updates?

 

- #1 requested feature - Sync settings - Simply sign in with your favourite social network and all your settings will be backed up and synced to any device! - No need to customise anything!  (yeah, we're listening)

- Media player settings - we said HTPC earlier and we meant it, StART will be able to play all your media and organise your Movies or TV shows.

- Slideshows effects - we will give you more options than just a fade in/ fade out effect.

- Text Effect Selection styles

- Notifications

- Categories

- use images instead of text for bookmarks/links/ apps

- !Pronto AKA Siri, Google Now, Cortana

- iOS App

- Android App

- Windows 10 & Mobile app

- Mac OS X app

- Opera extension

- Konami Code! (for s**** and giggles)

I would love to hear what you guys have to say.. i look forward to hearing back from you.

Cheers,

Jason

Edited September 3, 2015 by Jase
I cant add images into the post..

[SuperKid]

Looks nice and clean, the only issue is the loading time. A start page should load instantly otherwise it is a little pointless, I may have browsed to the website I need by typing it into the address bar before the start page loads.

[Jase]

Hey SuperKid, how are you today? thanks mate, We're working on the loading times, this is the first public release we hope to fix loading times ASAP!

[LimeMaster]

No official Firefox support, although it still works if you click it anyway. The appearance, visuals, & functionality seem nice. The changing image backgrounds remind me of Bing, but with the ability to add your own.

Anyways, while your idea to make homepage designed for everything is different, I prefer to keep things simple, which is why I'll stick to Google. However, I like your ideas & hope you expand on them for the people who prefer all-in-one homepages.

[Jase]

Firefox is coming, also note that chrome extensions will soon be working with firefox!

The thing about stART is you can customise it to your hearts content! what do you want to do to keep it simple? 

[binaryzero]

Too slow, and I don't really see the point.

Kudos though.

[Jase]

Too slow to load? To slow to use? What are you referring to?

[binaryzero]

To slow to use, and I don't really see a purpose for it. 

But I'm sure others will. 

[Jase]

To slow to use, and I don't really see a purpose for it. 

But I'm sure others will. 

we're working with microsoft to fix this, since stART is on their azure server.

i'm going to guess you're using a blank page for your new tab or you have bookmarks at the top of your browser, or maybe you have links pinned? that's fine & to each their own.. but stART doesn't just end there. we have big plans to make it not just a bookmark & slideshow service.

There are plenty of ways to have a homepage in your browser, but most of them just don’t give the user customisation.

What stART does is give you a homepage with your bookmarks and your own slideshow from any reddit page to chromecast, bing and soon Flickr… but it wont end there..we plan on actually making web apps for start, start will evolve into an actual desktop launcher where you can launch web apps like netflix, plex..etc. think of it as an OS inside an OS in your browser..

We also have plans to compete with plex and Kodi where you will be able to see and watch your media library right from stART! we have huuuge plans on how we can expand stART and we’d love positive and negative criticism so don’t sweat! it only gives us more of a reason to make stART even better.

oh woops, i’’ve said too much! i’ll stop talking now.

Thanks for your comment, it has been noted, i hope you have a fantastic day!

[Anibal P]

Looks good at first try, will delve into it deeper over the weekend 

Yes a little slow, but that will come with optimizations, would be cool to be able to import bookmarks from your browser 

[Jase]

Looks good at first try, will delve into it deeper over the weekend 

Yes a little slow, but that will come with optimizations, would be cool to be able to import bookmarks from your browser 

hey Anibal p, thanks for your comment!

we plan to add bookmark bookmarking and a whole syncing system later down the track.

[+BudMan MVC]

Why is this here?

How does this in any way what so ever relate to "Please remember that this forum is to be used for discussion of actual networking and the security surrounding it."

[Ironman273]

Yup. Probably just opened in the wrong place.  Should be here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/forum/88-software-created-by-our-members/

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

We Do Not collect users settings and data

How are you storing the bookmarks and preferences? 

[LimeMaster]

Firefox is coming, also note that chrome extensions will soon be working with firefox!

Good, good! Hopefully that means native Firefox support, and not just waiting for Chrome extensions to be supported. 

The thing about stART is you can customise it to your hearts content! what do you want to do to keep it simple? 

Yeah of course, which makes it more complex. And that's not a bad thing, as it will grab people's attention. But its not for everyone, especially those who use a search engine for basic things like searching the web or finding images.

[Jase]

Why is this here?

How does this in any way what so ever relate to "Please remember that this forum is to be used for discussion of actual networking and the security surrounding it."

Woops, my bad! can a mod please move it to the right area, I am deeply sorry for that.

Yup. Probably just opened in the wrong place.  Should be here: https://www.neowin.net/forum/forum/88-software-created-by-our-members/

yep, wrong place.. sorry!

How are you storing the bookmarks and preferences? 

within the users web browser

 

Good, good! Hopefully that means native Firefox support, and not just waiting for Chrome extensions to be supported. 

Yeah of course, which makes it more complex. And that's not a bad thing, as it will grab people's attention. But its not for everyone, especially those who use a search engine for basic things like searching the web or finding images.

Thanks for understanding mate! we get that it's not for everyone which is why these comments are helping in making it even better.. Speaking of, how is the speed now?

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

within the users web browser

And they are not accessible to you?  I'm confused!? 

[Jase]

And they are not accessible to you?  I'm confused!? 

Nope, it's all done locally through local storage:

Local storage is more secure, and large amounts of data can be stored locally, without affecting website performance. Unlike cookies, the storage limit is far larger (at least 5MB) and information is never transferred to the server.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

My cons:
1. I'd say lose the background images. As others have said it should load instantly, while the page itself loads in a flash, I'm waiting for the BG image to download in the background. 
2. The hamburger menu flyout needs to to be sped up a bit, it takes a second to 'fly out' and should be faster. 
3. The search words in grey on the search page should say something else like 'click here to search'. I was literally clicking the magnifying glass thinking a search box would come up. Maybe add a border to the search box so users actually know its an actual search box?

My pros:
1. The page is appealing
2. The menu system you have in place is 
3. Good work so far   

[MikeChipshop Member]

Ha! You copy cats. 

I've had the same thing running on my local server that i built myself as i found others to lackluster.

Mine also calls in a bunch of stuff from the local server like last used files, current projects and stuff that would be overkill for your project but overall i'm a fan. Also, i have the worlds worst internet and it seems to load snappy for me, maybe you've done some work since the laggy complaints above.

And they are not accessible to you?  I'm confused!? 

 

HTML5 Local Storage. Like cookies but far far more private, secure and better.

[Jase]

My cons:
1. I'd say lose the background images. As others have said it should load instantly, while the page itself loads in a flash, I'm waiting for the BG image to download in the background. 
2. The hamburger menu flyout needs to to be sped up a bit, it takes a second to 'fly out' and should be faster. 
3. The search words in grey on the search page should say something else like 'click here to search'. I was literally clicking the magnifying glass thinking a search box would come up. Maybe add a border to the search box so users actually know its an actual search box?

My pros:
1. The page is appealing
2. The menu system you have in place is 
3. Good work so far   

Wow, thanks man! keep these coming! anything you like/dislike.. please do let me know! 

1. lose the background images? what do you mean? also how fast is your connection?
2. Speed up the hamburger menu ay? okay no worries
3. Oh but I liked the classic "where would you like to go today?" haha, maybe we will make it customisable so you can add whatever you wish for search.

Ha! You copy cats. 

I've had the same thing running on my local server that i built myself as i found others to lackluster.

Mine also calls in a bunch of stuff from the local server like last used files, current projects and stuff that would be overkill for your project but overall i'm a fan. Also, i have the worlds worst internet and it seems to load snappy for me, maybe you've done some work since the laggy complaints above.

 

HTML5 Local Storage. Like cookies but far far more private, secure and better.

 

glad to have another fan & glad to see the worlds worst internet seems to load snappy! we improved speed today and it's been going strong!

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

 

Wow, thanks man! keep these coming! anything you like/dislike.. please do let me know! 

1. lose the background images? what do you mean? also how fast is your connection?
2. Speed up the hamburger menu ay? okay no worries
3. Oh but I liked the classic "where would you like to go today?" haha, maybe we will make it customisable so you can add whatever you wish for search.

 

glad to have another fan & glad to see the worlds worst internet seems to load snappy! we improved speed today and it's been going strong!

1. Yep, have a solid color background. I have a 100mb cable connection but if those images take 2 seconds for me to load, it will take 10+ seconds for someone on a 10mb/sec adsl connection or worse. 
2. woo awesome Only needs tweaking of about .5 of a second.
3. 'Where would you want to go today?' would be better than grey header text that simply says 'Search'. But even then you need to make it clear that it's an actual search box, that's the point I was getting at  

[Farchord]

Looks good! I added it.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

HTML5 Local Storage. Like cookies but far far more private, secure and better.

Oh sure I get that - but I assumed these were available to the server, are they client side only? 

[SoCalRox]

Beautiful design! Very nicely done. I must agree it is slow loading- perhaps the graphics are too heavy? I'll give it some time on my browsers (Win, Linux, and Mac) and see how it does. But... I do like what I see.