Choosing a personalised homepage service

This post will provide information on different personalised homepage services that are currently out there. Hopefully it will give you a better idea of options out there if you do decide to use one. I would also like to share my thoughts about it and what features i’m looking for when deciding.

I noticed that there aren’t a particular word to call a personalised homepage as I’ve seen it been called various names including customised homepage, start-up homepage, web portal and homepage dashboard. I will use the term personalised homepage in this post.

Why has personalised homepage become less popular?

Long gone were the days when personalised homepage ruled the web and it had left us on the 1st of Nov 2013 when iGoogle discontinued. OK, perhaps i’m exaggerating, but I can’t help but noticed that personalise homepage just isn’t a thing since iGoogle discontinued. There had been some attempts to replicate iGoogle that didn’t gain popularity and it’s competitor such as netvibes seems to shift it’s focus to data science services for businesses.

I do not know the reason why personalised homepage services lost its popularity. I suspect it could be that users simply won’t get out of their ways to use it if it is not already integrated in their ecosystem. Perhaps there is a data security risk when using products from developers one may not trust. Another likely reason is that smart phone with it’s widget replaced the use of most PC.

The promising news is that personalised homepage usage may become popular again thanks to the new feature of Widget Panel (Microsoft Start) in Windows 11.

Criteria – what i’m looking for:

When looking for a personalised homepage service, I am looking for these:

• Essential productivity tools: temperature, calendar, to-do list and notes.
• Email widget
• Capable of being integrated into ecosystem. Email, calendar and to-do list can be integrated into a ecosystem i.e. Outlook, Apple, Yahoo etc…
• Social media widgets: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc…
• RSS feed widget for news, blogs, podcast etc…
• Dynamic live time widgets and not a static icon links

Options:

(i) Personalised homepage service website:

One of the great things about having a start-up homepage website is that you’ll have access to it anywhere as long you have access to the internet. It is also convenient as it is easy to register, set up, and start using.

Although it usually provides all the basic tools, it may not have everything you are looking for. For instance, the email, calendar or to-do list widget might not be able to integrate into the system i.e. microsoft outlook, google or apple system. The RSS feed feature also tends to be more limited. I’ve listed some recommended start-up homepage provider below.

Recommended websites:

1. uStart.org: uStart.org has all the essential productivity tools. It even has instagram widget that is not provided in start.me. However, the RSS feed is not as extensive but that is fine for most users. I’d choose this if I want all the essential features.
2. Start.me: Start.me provides both the website or browser extension platform. The positive aspect is that they use social media widgets and it has a very impressive RSS feed that is more extensive than other options out there. Unfortunately it doesn’t have email widget, and it isn’t integrated with Microsoft system. If I were a big RSS feed user, then I’d consider this.
3. iGooglePortal (igtab): iGooglePortal is replica of the former iGoogle with the same layout and design. It is tailored for google users i.e. it has gmail widget. I’d choose this if I just want a iGoogle replica.

And of course there is always the OG mail homepage like MSN and My Yahoo. From what I know so far, My Yahoo seems to be the superior start-up homepage in comparison to MSN as widgets are customisable and it has a RSS feed feature. Unfortunately not there aren’t many yahoo users and people might not be willing to transition to Yahoo but it is worth mentioning.

Other options includes igHome and Protopage. Both of these are replica of iGoogle. Unfortunately some widgets seems to not be working and so I assume it must have been abandon by the developers.

(ii) Personalised homepage browser:

I was pleased when I found out that there is a web browser, called Vivaldi, provides a dedicated feature of a customisable start-up homepage. The design is modern, clean and friendly that reminds me of Apple design. It’s has all the features you’d need and more, including email widget, productivity tools and a good RSS feed. What impressed me the most was the website widget that allows you to have any website displayed on your widget. That’s really smart because the developer don’t have to make specialised widgets for specific social media platform.

I don’t have much negative things to say other than how it can be awkward to move widgets around as it automatically rearranges itself to make the column levelled when not levelled evenly. It would also be better if they make can use of dead spaces although I understand that it could be for aesthetic reasons.

(iii) Personalised homepage browser extension:

Another way of turning your browser into a start-up homepage dashboard is by adding extensions into your browsers. Here is a list of them:

• DashyApp.com: Although it currently has a low number of users of 10k but has an impressive high rating of 4.9 stars. It has a lot of slick theme design. It covers most of essential features, outlook/google calendar, it has some social media widget (including facebook & instagram) and even youtube. It also states that it does not sell or share user data to third parties unlike other services I’ve seen. The downside is that I can’t seem to find an email widget but I guess that may be a good thing in terms of security i.e. not risking email being hack. You also won’t have access to most of the widget unless you purchase an upgrade but with the great product it provides I think many will find it worth it. NB: not to be confused with dashy.to which is a dashboard for homelab server.
• Start.me: Has a huge users of 100k with 4.3 stars rating: See the website version above for more info.
• ProductivityTab: Currently has 20k users with 4.4 stars rating. Has all the essential productive features but falls short on important features of integrating to other ecosystem outside of google. I suspect that the developer is no longer working on this project because I see outdated links or widget to Google Plus and the old Twitter link.

(iv) Create your own start-up homepage:

If you can’t find a start-up homepage website that is suitable for you, then why not create your own one? This is great for people who are very particular, who loves DIY and just designing to your own style. The RSS feed tools can be better, allowing you to follow your favourite news outlet or blogs without restriction.

The down side is that it can be complicated and time consuming if you are not tech savy. It also requires effort on the maintenance aspect, i.e. updating the widgets and the website system. Also, you are in the hands of the developers, where they are the one who will do the debugging, updating and there may be cases when they abandon their widgets. The main concern is actually risk giving your digital data to a third party developer that may leaves you vulnerable to being hacked. Although this can also be the case for start-up homepage website.

If you are interested in creating your own start-up homepage, I suggest using WordPress as I am familiar with it and also to make sure you use reliable developer with long good track history and popular. Unfortunately, currently the pluggins that are available for microsoft outlook system do not have developer from big reliable corporation.

(v) PC start-up widget panel board:

I admit that I was very disheartened and confused why start-up homepage website were no longer a thing, especially after the discontinuation of iGoogle in 2013. Now that I think about it, it was sort of replaced by widgets on phones and tablets. NB: I highly recommend downloading Mirosoft Launcher app for your phone, which provides a widget panel.

Recently I’ve looked into the new feature called Microsoft Start (also known as widget panel) on Windows 11 PC, and found that it serves an amazing start up dashboard page. I was impressed because it provides all the features I am looking for i.e. weather update, calendar, email, notepad, facebook, messenger, RSS feed widget and news feed. It is very convenient as it is already built into the PC and the widgets are able to be integrated into your microsoft outlook ecosystem, so your calendar, to-do list and notes can be in synced.

As the widget panel is newly released, there needs to be more development on the variable of widgets available but i’m pleased that it fulfils all the essentials features I’ve been looking for. The downside is that some basic widgets are not free such as the calendar widgets. However, the price is cheap and worth it.

For Apple MacBooks, there is a notification panel where you can customised it with your widgets.

(vi) Desktop widget:

Another alternative way to make a PC dashboard is to use widgets and browsers on your desktop screen. This is usually ideal when you have a second monitor if you want to avoid clutter. The good point of doing this is that it is relatively simple to do.

Both Apple MacBook and Windows has widgets, but there seems to be limit when it comes to finding widgets that is integrated with an ecosystem such Outlook calendar, email or to-do list. You can use multiple browsers and programs on instead of widget but it wouldn’t appear as presentable. Also, if you are a minimalist like me, cluttering your desktop is not ideal.

Conclusion – what’s the best options?:

Firstly, I want to say that I’m rather disappointed and surprised by the lack of options for a decent personalised homepage services out there.

There is no best option but what is most suitable for you. This decision is only applies for my case being an outlook user.

Firstly, I decided to choose a website based homepage because it is easier to browser into social media websites like Twitter or Facebook with adjacent tabs. I find it a bit too inconvenient to transition from a PC dashboard panel to a Web browser if I decide to access social media websites.

My first choice is DashyApp.com. This is because it pretty much have everything I need and even more. All the productive widgets, integrated features to Microsoft products and social media widget & flexible website widget.

However, the problem is that it has a very limited RSS feed for news, therefore I have also include start.me because it has a really impressive RSS feed feature. Although it does defeat the purpose of having one centralised personalised homepage, I am fine with it when I used a screen split to display both DashyApp.

Another current major disadvantage is that using DashyApp on Edge Browsers is currently buggy and some widgets are not working, although it works perfectly fine on Chrome. Hopefully this problem will be fixed.

The main concern using this product is using the integration products like Outlook Calendar or To-Do list because it requires access to my persona Outlook account. I am concern whether hackers can access my Outlook account via that route. But I am able to work around it by using Outlook Calendar & To-Do List via website widget.

I would also like to mentioned that this is a paid product, but I really think it is worth the purchase. I got the life time access for about £7 which includes a 70% discount, which is a steal. I highly recommend it.

My second choice choice is either Microsoft Start (Widget Panel) or the Vivaldi browser.

• Microsoft Start: This is a Windows PC personalised homepage widget panel. It is convenient as it is already built into PC and safety integrated into outlook features i.e. email, calendar, to-do list (but I suggest avoid using third party developers for safety data safety reasons) Using producta from well established company gives it credibility, trust and user confidence.
• Vivaldi Browser: I would say this is the best browser ever in the world. It has a personalised homepage features and multiple screen split. If you are OK with. using another browser, then I highly recommend this.

I would have included start.me or ustart.org but unfortunately the social media widget doesn’t seem to work. However, I still use start.me for it’s impressive RSS feed for news.

Hope these recommendations will help you find a home on the net.