Start is Microsoft's version of Google Homepage
If you haven't tried Google's personalized homepage (similar to MyYahoo), give it a peek after getting your Gmail account. Next, you'll want to try the Next Great Copy from Microsoft: Start. It's just like Google's, but of course uses MSN for search and isn't Safari compatible. It does, however, use Ajax, and looks pretty swanky.Hot on the heels of aping offerings like Google Earth, MS seems pretty intent on matching the moves of their "do no evil" web-based competitors from sunny Mountain View. When I opened up the page it magically new I like BBC News, Engadget, and BoingBoing. Oh wait, there's the weather for Redmond. Looks like they just know what geeks like me want on their pages... What, no Slashdot? Start is working on Firefox on my Mac, and no doubt will work just fine in IE... Now I wonder what it holds for the future of IE7, and LongVista?












Comments
7
Subscribe to comments~J~Jul 27th 2005 7:37AM
Just had a play with this. VERY nice, quite friendly and simple to use.
Seems to have a bit more 'ease-of-use' than the other attempts.
The feeds is VERY well done.
asquaredJul 27th 2005 8:02AM
just to let you know this has been around for quite a while. additionally wouldn't my msn be a closer competitor to the new google homepage or does that not fit into the slant of the story?
VasanthJul 27th 2005 12:10PM
Microsoft's Start has been around longer than Google's personalized homepage.
Brian PipaJul 27th 2005 8:38AM
You can actually add any feed you want to it. It even lets you import an OPML file into it to get a bunch of feeds into it quickly and easily. Pretty cool. Just click on the upper right "Start preview" image.
brian
http://myvogonpoetry.com
Scott HughesJul 28th 2005 4:54PM
start.com is more of a testing ground for new MSN technologies. It pre-dates the personalized Google home page by several months that I know of...
Victor Agreda, Jr.Jul 27th 2005 10:51AM
As the Gene Wilder edition of Willy Wonka would say, "scratch that, reverse it."
Of course, Start is actually on it's third iteration now. It has always had support for adding your own RSS feeds. It keeps getting better from what I can see. Google is actually playing catch-up in this case...
saycheeseAug 2nd 2005 4:31PM
Victor, not to be a smart ass, but you might need to proof read the articles better.. there are typos and grammatical errors in the post. A little more care is warranted.