Partager via

start.com - what I like, and what I want

  • Article

In reply to my "Start.com rocks" post, Dragos asked me the other day:

>>> what is it that rocks if we compare it to google/ig for example? Or if we compare it to a web-based rss reader for that instance, since it plays a strong substitution role?

1) It's extremely minimalistic view (yes, by default it brings all these additional views but I usually click the "hide" link, and I get a very clean search portal. That's what I like most about it. Yes, I know that google.com has this for a long time, but now start.com is even thinner :-)
2) google.com/ig (or other similar portals like my.msn.com or my.yahoo.com) require a login. For simplicity, I want to skip that part. I just want a quick search portal that is easy to use from any machine (and I am using a lot of machines at work or at home). For me it's important to bring the portal quick: type "start" and press Ctrl-Enter.
3) The new stickiness model, where you can "save" the search results and start a new query on the same page. (Bug: this doesn't seem to always work - in some cases I get "no results"?)

>>> I liked it very much in the very beginning when they were still in beta, I still love their concept, but still it is far away from what (I think) it should be. Hint: try to import an opml file. Even Neogen's ( https://new.neogen.ro/ )works better (no, I am not affiliated with it whatsoever).

I don't use the RSS reader part. But indeed, the OPML import doesn't seem to work. (I hope the start.com team is listening.) And while we are here - a wish list item for the start.com guys: can you please add a "cached link" to the search results? And a longer text snippet in the search results (not just one line, but two lines, like search.msn.com). And - the ability to search images. And integration with virtual earth. And... no, I don't want a little pony :-)

I personally agree that it has lots of future potential but it's a beta of the very first version after all. We'll see how it works...

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 06, 2005
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    September 10, 2005
    I've posted a comparison of start.com and google.com/ig on my blog.

    http://teamaskins.net/pivot/entry.php?id=101
  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2005
    Acum...romaneste vorbind despre lucruri romanesti mi se pare culmea nesimtirii sa spui ca o copie de 2 bani ca ceea a neogenului sa o compari cu originalul.

    Si apropo...nu am folosit niciodata optiunea homepage in browsere dar acum start.com ii default ;)