Using bookmarks to get to the sites i daily use has become the thing of the past for me. It is after I started using HomepageStartup for my startup page needs. It allowed me to have my links that I use often in separate tabs based on their function.
Symbaloo does the same and more in a really cool interface. Symbaloo has redefined startup pages where they have integrated search and most frequent links you would use in a predefined tab.
Symbaloo Quick Facts
- A drag and drop ajaxy web interface where you can rearrange your links as you please.
- Add pre-defined bookmarks, searches, RSS feeds or define your own
- In a default desktop, Symbaloo has pre-defined modules and there are empty spots for you to add more modules.
- The center of the interface sports a search box which can search the web from regular to weather to dictionary lookup.
- You have the option to use and empty desktop or he default desktop for a new tab
- When you click on a box to add a link, you could select from one of the pre-defined links or enter your own
- While entering your own, Symbaloo shows you the favicon if they already have one for a website like PayPal or lets you choose one from their iconset.
- The News desktop has to get a special mention as it is rather unique. You can see news in a pciture view where it takes up different squares depending on the size of the picture and on mouse over you get an excerpt of the news.
- Once you see the way to delete, you are going to love it. Just drag a module to the center console and it turns into a trash bin.
- Symbaloo also supports RSS feeds & widgets and I haven’t explored this yet.
Should I try it?
In short, Symbaloo has taken a fresh approach and enters charging into a not so new niche. One awesome thing about Symbaloo is that you can try it and customize it to your hearts content without ever creating an account. But, if you don’t want to lose all the work you put in or want to use it from multiple computers, you could create yourself a login.
I did find the adding bookmarks part a little slow in the Ajaxy interface, but it has gotten significantly faster in just these 2 days. It probably shows that they are constantly improving the performance with increased load as it gains traction. Another issue I see is that, Symbaloo has switched my account to ‘Nederland’, as you can see in the above screenshot, which is where I believe this startup is from. Even if I change the language option (English – US, UK), French, Spanish & Nederland, it doesn’t take effect. I am sure it’ll be an easy fix if I contact them.
Symbaloo is not just eye candy but it is a great blend where function meets flashy design.
Now that you know what’s in store for you, what do you think of this service? Would you make this your start page in your browser?
LOL I was going to write about this and even created a draff for it. Anways this is a real cool service and I use it as my start page instead of Google IG
Keith, I would love to see your take on it! I guess tech-crazy minds write alike! 😉
Plus, I see that if I choose my language as UK, I see English. It’s the US English that seems to have that bug I mentioned!
Nice find, and a nice interface too, Better than Home page startup.
The way the links are presented gives a great feeling of web 2.0 🙂
Hmmm, it’s hard to tell, but I don’t see an icon for MeAndMyDrum there buddy. Could it be on another tab perhaps? LOL
It does make a nice start page 😛
@Vaibhav, it definitely has a web 2.0 look and it will get its true meaning if it allows sharing of tabs with other users like netvibes, Pageflakes, etc.
@Mark.. MAMD is my other start page! 🙂
@Kumar.. thanks for stopping by to comment! Welcome to ShanKri-la! 😀
Symbaloo’s interface looks very similar to Joost’s new interface.
Hey Michael! Good to see you back! Do we need to say more especially when web 2.0 means eye candy to a lot of folks! 😛 Since Hulu, I haven’t been to Joost much. I wonder what they have been up to!
So has anyone had luck running symbaloo on Firefox 3?
Zippo,
I haven’t had any luck running Symbaloo in Firefox 3 either. I don’t use Firefox 3b2 for my mainstream use yet so it hasn’t bothered me much. If the Symbaloo team hears from enough of us, may be they’ll fix that! 😉
I think Symbaloo is a great idea, I’ve tried it (as well as others) and found it pretty easy and fast to set up, although, for my tastes, i still prefer non-flashy sites like google or recently a quirky site like kiwibeak has been fitting my needs.
I agree. As nice it is I am using Symbaloo less and less.. I am interested in using the new Firefox add-on AutoDial that looks promising!