This magical extension is available from the Chrome Web Store and works across all your devices and other browsers (Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera), without the need to sync your data/bookmarks.
It is easily customised to your requirements, using a library of widgets that the developer has provided, to quickly put together your ideal page [or pages] that are displayed when you press the 'new tab' [or "+" sign] in your browser.
Once you have your free account set up in your browser [or more than one browser over multiple devices] you will always have your favourite links etc. at your fingertips.
N.B. There is a 'paid for' version for pros but the 'free' version gives you a wide range of facilities that will likely do whatever you require.
If you build up a lot of information on your main page it might start to look a bit 'busy' in which case you can spread your widgets over multiple pages [like a mini web site] to make everything streamlined and tidy - see the developer's blog for latest facilities and ideas that others have put to use.
Click here to see an example 'new tab' page called Desktop that shows a couple of ideas of things that can be done with these widgets. The view of this page is restricted to displaying just the single main page, as it is not owned by you, which is also the same for the 'owner' until logged in. Once you log in to your own Start.Me page any additional pages will be accessible using the page menu that is displayed.
N.B. Links on the page may work [if they are generic or public] but some may not work for visitors due to privacy restrictions.
Click here to see another 'new tab' that is a single page called All2Share that contains widgets and entries that are of a generic nature and should work for any user.
The mechanics of these widgets may look a bit complicated at first but once you try out a few options and settings [experiment away as you can't break anything] you can quickly develop your own ' tab page' that will probably provide a much better result than what is normally available with standard ‘bookmark managers’ or even bespoke pages created with something more complicated like the full Google Sites facility.
Anyone not happy with the way their current 'new tab' operates should consider having a go at creating their own 'masterpiece'.
There are also excellent companion Apps available [the Android App in the Play Store, and the iPad App from the App Store] that display your work of art in a customised screen format that is much better than just viewing it with a browser on your smaller screens.
To date, there does not seem to be much in the way of any published guide or built in help telling you how to use this great system.
If you don't mind a bit of "trial and error" you can soon teach yourself what the key customisation options are.
To give you a couple of tips there are 3 key areas that you need to be aware of ....
In the top left hand corner of the screen you will find the "Pages" button that lets you control the number of pages you want to create to hold all of your information in whatever sequence suits you, managing their names [that appear on browser tab], and of course you can remove any you no longer require.
In the opposite top right hand corner their are some icons providing access to built in features that let you manage a number of other important features like the background displayed and the number of columns you require - check them all out.
Finally there are some hidden actions that are not obvious unless you know they are there. To get into these you need to turn on access to their controls by clicking on any of the widgets displayed on the page and while holding down the left mouse key giving it a little shuggle. This will cause it, and any others present, to collapse into an oblong shaped 'block' containing a small square shaped icon in its' top right corner. When this happens you will also see some additional options [described below] displayed along the top of the screen area. From this position you have two options for making your customisations. The first is to 'drag and drop' widgets around the screen to any position you fancy and then let go to reposition them. The second is more powerful and it is achieved by putting an 'x' in the wee box, to select a given widget, after which you are to take advantage of the additional options available for copying, moving and deleting widgets through a pop up window that appears to the right.
Click here to launch a second Start.Me tab that maintained by a partially shared Google account that is used for developing things. The 'new tab' site has been made shareable [in ‘read only’ mode] to anyone with the link.
It will in no way impact upon anything you may be doing with your own Start.Me tab if you set one up.
It includes a number of links that may be use to other users so if you like what you see you can always add the URL to your Bookmarks Bar using Ctrl+d.
As mentioned above the 'new tab' site can be shared [in ‘read only’ mode] to anyone with the link but it is possible to do more with it.
There is an option for linking the share.me 'site' with one or more other 'share.me' users. In such cases you can grant 'read' or 'edit' permissions to other users and a link is sent to nominees by email for them to accept. If they do so then the additional share.me 'sites' appear within the primary 'site' as additional options on the screen wide, grey coloured, page selection bar.
Normally when you open your start.me page the browser’s URL box is empty.
Logging in does not always change this. However sometimes after carrying out changes the full URL will appear, and remain, in the box.
This is a bit unpredictable and can be annoying if you just want to find out your page's URL.
The solution is actually quite straight forward ...
First, click on the “Pages” heading in the top left corner. - this causes a small window to open up.
Second, roll your mouse over the new “Personal pages” heading - this will cause a wee cog wheel to appear to the right of the heading.
Third, click the wee cog to open up a new information page - scroll down to the “Public Profile” section where you will find a sub-heading called “Public Profile URL” containing the URL address of your site.
Please set your own password to secure your account.
Set start.me as your new tab page with our extension.
Use our bookmarklet to save webpages while you surf.
Download our apps to use start.me on your mobile devices (iOS, Android) as well.
Get inspiration from our Page Gallery. Here you can view public start pages created by other start.me users.
If you like to learn more about start.me, take a look at our support center and our blog.
If you have any questions, just drop us an email at support@start.me.
The above was extracted from an email received [and archived to “Web-Regs”] when first set up in late March 2022.
Browser extensions available for all major browsers to help you to quickly save links from any web page to your start.me page. Simply click the start.me icon in your browser toolbar, and add the bookmark to the page you like.
You can use the Chrome browser extension for a number of things:
Quickly bookmark a site and save it to start.me
Copy news feeds from other sites into your own pages
Import your browser bookmarks into start.me
Set start.me as your new tab page
This URL https://start.me/users/edit shows details when logged on. If at first you get logged on as an ‘anonymous user’ you need to log out [confirming access no longer required] and log on again using your Gmail address to create your own set up..
The URL https://start.me/users/edit directs you to a user profile page.
The URL https://start.me/p/ydNPxO/desktop shows my ‘new tab’ page registered under my Gmail address.