I really like for the sites and tools I use frequently to be kept together in one place, and not just as shortcuts on my desktop or in my Favorites (who’d ever find anything there?)
Two very useful and time-saving web services I use for this purpose are Only2Clicks, which was profiled on MakeUseOf before, and Hyperigo, both of which allow you to organize your favorite websites on one tab-supported page. They come equipped with a few token sample offerings in place, but both are easily customizable for the main purpose: adding your own stuff!
With either Only2Clicks and Hyperigo, you can add or upload any of your bookmarks and they will be displayed as small screenshots of the actual sites themselves, usually 15 to 18 to a page.
Recently I came across another couple of sites which are similar in principle to Only2Clicks and Hyperigo.
AllMyFaves - calls itself a “visual directory” and contains countless visual links (icons) to most popular sites within dozens of categories. You probably frequent mots of them on a regular basis, thus the slogan, “why search?” This is just a random sampling of the “Entertainment” tab, and there are other tabs as well, for Shopping, Travel, etc.
Each tab lists relevant sub-categories, i.e. of Finance, E-Trade, Magazines, News, Compare, Shopping, Photo, Movies, Music, Web Radio, Astrology, Dating, Games, Chat, Blog, Voip, Instant Message, Insurance, Courier, Health, etc. Pretty extensive.
AllMyFaves continues to be a “work in progress” as it even has a “Weekly Faves” report of all the new sites found each week. Plus even though it is not currently customizable, it is expected to be in the future. The site suggests that AllMyFaves can be used as a Start Page, and it would no doubt be a good one, but for me it is better suited as a shortcut on my desktop for now.
After all, it contains links to many of the shortcuts on my desktop already! If yours is anything like mine, you’ll be able to replace several of them with the one, saving yourself a little time searching.
Symbaloo - Unlike the above, Symbaloo also aggregates essential search tools on one page. Seach for weather, phone numbers, address locations, dictionary search, videos, recipes, eBay auctions and so on. Symbaloo also supports tabbed browsing and drag’n drop interface. Apart from search engines, it allows you to add websites, feeds, email accounts (ex. Gmail), radio channels, etc. [Video demo]
Finally if you’re looking for a startpage-like online feedreader then go straight to Netvibes.
And, as usual, if you know of any similar or better concepts, let us know!
(By) From the non-geek perspective of Linda Martin-Peoples, author of CoolOnlineTools, MyBlognosis and a few other sites scattered across the web. Linda lives with her husband and two cats just outside of beautiful Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Filed Under: Cool Websites ¦ Lists of tools
Tags: aggregator, start pages
How about http://www.yourminis.com/start - like a slicker version of NetVibes - plus everything’s “widgetizable” (bad word but you get what I mean). See also http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/marc/2007/05/10/uk-gov-youtube-better-than-yourminis-demo/
Only2Clicks has a better interface but i don’t know about the functionality cuz i didn’t try any of them.
maybe i should!!
Hey Linda,
Thank you for the great write up on AllMyFaves. It is very exciting to see us featured on Makeuseof, as I have been a long time reader of this blog.
As you mentioned, AllMyFaves is a “work in progress” and we are currently working on a customizable version which will be much more appealing and useful. As well we are expanding our sites content into many different countries. Our goal is to provide everyone with an easy access to the Internet and help them discover the best sites that the net has to offer. From the major ones onto the small gems that haven’t been discovered yet.
Thanks again for the write up.
Roy Pessis
I use netvibes and really like it. But now I’ll check out these other services, see if they’re better. Thanks.
Fantastic post…Thanks
Great post Linda,
Thanks for mentioning only2clicks. Recently we are releasing iPhone interface, Skins, import/export bookmark and much more.
Hope you guys like it
Thanks.
After reading this post with some interest I went to try out Hyperigo. I signed up for it with my email as per usual and then - nothing. Can’t log in with the details I gave, although it tells me my account is already being used if I try to reinput them and start again.
Not impressed in the slightest.
[...] Fonte: MakeUseOf [...]
Thanks for all the great comments!
I use AllMyFaves, Only2Clicks and Hyperigo myself…and dearly love each one of them.
To me, they are all unique and offer some particular functionality that I appreciate.
(Sorry for your problem with Hyperigo, Hyde. Have you tried “Help”?)
Thanks everybody! I really appreciate your support!
~Linda~
[...] attentive MUO readers will recall that Linda has written a similar post back in February. In Aggregate your Favorite Websites on One Page she wrote about AllMyFaves and Symbaloo. I found AllMyFaves quite overwhelming. There are way too [...]