What are you using as a starting point?

Most of the modern browsers allow users to setup a starting page. Some browsers even let you use several pages or tabs to start working on exactly the things that you need to be working on.

For a long time I was using my own blog as a starting page. It helped me to get into browsing mood. I saw what were the last things I’ve written about and somehow continued from there. Plus, of course, the most important links are on my blog’s front page. Or, at least, they used to be there.

Recently I came to realize that my blog’s front page is not the best choice for starting point. The links have been moved around. And I also need to jump to different places straight away, depending on my mood and time of the day.

Starting pointSo, I created a simple, but very customized page with all the links that I need to get to quickly. It even features Google’s search form, so that I can save myself one click. Yup, that’s the one on the screenshot.

I wonder though, what are you guys using to start you off? Is it just a single page or a number of websites? Is it done by you or by someone else? Let me know via comments…

10 thoughts on “What are you using as a starting point?”


  1. Until five minutes ago, I used the BBC news site as my home-page. I like to have a quick glance at the day’s news before I do anything else. Usually I then open four or five other sites in new tabs.

    I had no idea it was possible to have several tabs as the home page until I read your post. A quick glance at Firefox help and I discovered how to do it. Now my home page consists of six tabs: BBC news, Bloglines, Bibliophil, Blogger dashboard, UK weather and Gmail.

    So thank you, a new feature… of course all it saves is five ctrl-clicks, but I like it :-)


  2. Hi Sue,

    Thanks for stopping by.

    A few clicks are only a few clicks when you think of them that way. But if you consider a few clicks every time you start a browser – that’s a total other story. ;)


  3. Cool! I use similar page (but it doesn’t look so nice :)) as a start page on my work PC. There are links to all my projects, some useful pages and reports.


  4. I never start my browser – it is always started. I simply do not shut it down and I never turn off my PC as I use standby… I do understand that this kind of comfort is out of reach for most linux users but I am not one any more :). And even if I close my browser all the tabs appear as they were before on the next startup because I use session saver.


  5. Alexey,

    I never start my browser – it is always started. I simply do not shut it down and I never turn off my PC as I use standby…

    There are many situations which will require one to actually start a browser. Power failures, hardware upgrades, small apartments with noisy computers, electricity bill concerns – just to name a few. I’m glad you have none of these.

    The reason I asked the question is my recently acquired notebook. Obviously I shut it down and boot back up again pretty often. Neither hybernate, not suspend help in this case, as I want a clean start to get all the environment changes – it is configured to start differently at work, at home, and at unknown place, for example.

    I do understand that this kind of comfort is out of reach for most linux users but I am not one any more

    What are you using then? PDP-11? :) Last time I heard all modern operating systems had patches that would require a reboot. Some operating systems – hint, hint, hint – require a reboot even for software installation/uninstallation…

    You’re trolling. Please stop.

    And even if I close my browser all the tabs appear as they were before on the next startup because I use session saver.

    Nice. I tried to use session saver, but it didn’t fit me. It’s just not the way I work.

    Basically, I start my browser session (not a new browser, but a new day actually) from the same places. And before I finish a session (a day or an hour, whatever), I come to the same place – with all other tabs and windows closed.

    I can’t sleep well if I know there is a tab with something other than my starting page open in my browser. :)

  6. There are many situations which will require one to actually start a browser. Power failures, hardware upgrades, small apartments with noisy computers, electricity bill concerns – just to name a few. I’m glad you have none of these.

    All of these happen extremely rarely. And when PC is on standby, there is no noise and virtually zero power consumption. I’ve been always curious about power consumption of a modern PC on standby. But no one gave me a multimeter as a present despite my requests! Bastards.

    I do understand that this kind of comfort is out of reach for most linux users but I am not one any more

    What are you using then? PDP-11? :) Last time I heard all modern operating systems had patches that would require a reboot. Some operating systems – hint, hint, hint – require a reboot even for software installation/uninstallation…

    You’re trolling. Please stop.

    I can’t! That was the whole point! I never miss the chance :)

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