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Custom Start Page Index

What is the purpose of this website?

Released in early 2020, Custom Start Page is a website which collects custom built startpages and allows users to customise and use them.

Why?

Browsers come with a default homepage but some users like to have something a bit different. There's a subreddit devoted to this (r/startpages).

But in order to design one of these, you'd need web development knowledge. My site aims to make it possible for anyone to have a nice homepage.

How?

I used a specification called JSON Schema to define what is customisable on the page. A React component (called React JSON Schema) then uses this schema to generate a user friendly form.

The result ends out like this:

Custom Start Page Edit Page

Future features

The MVP project only allowed users to customise existing startpages and store custom data in their browser's local storage.

Features I'd like to implement are:

  • allow user sign up
  • store customisation server side
  • allow users to upload their own startpages
  • allow other users to use and configure uploaded start pages
  • startpage rankings and ratings