Month: May 2006

The new version of the site is finally online. Besides a new design and various code validations, we’ve got a bunch of new features. The biggest addition is the new search technology. This allows you to use the search box in the upper right hand corner of each page to search for start page themes. We’re still perfecting the search, so if you search for a page you know we have and it doesn’t show up, please let us know.

We’ve made a database of every theme, and you can see this technology at work all across the site. First, the start page gallery now shows ALL THEMES by default. You can narrow down your browsing by Music, Movie and TV, Videogames, and Other. The revamped staff page also uses this database technology to display the number of themes and additional information about our designers.

Our main page now displays the top eight most used themes. Additionally, we’ve added a new request system that totals the number of times a theme has been requested. This will allow our designers to add the most desired themes to the site the fastest.

Our Developer’s Log has also been given an update. There is now a permalink to every entry (in the odd case that you might want to link to it for some reason!) You can also browse entries as far back as day 1. There are a few features, as we mentioned in the last devlog, that didn’t make this release. We’re still actively working on them. They should be up (along with a batch of new themes) very shortly. We’d love to hear your feedback.

New features for the upcoming 3.0 launch have already begun popping up on the site. Aside from the new navbar above all the core pages, we’ve also integrated the gallery database into the preferences page. AwesomeStart now has support for A9’s siteinfo.xml and a standard robots.txt file. These last two tweaks won’t mean much to our end users, but are important technologies we though we should support.

We’re gotten a lot accomplished in the last few weeks. The brand new request system is done, and we’re pretty proud of it. We’ve finished redesigning all the main pages, and we’re rewritten the design page to include more details. We’ll elaborate on all these new features once the site goes online. There are still several major sections being worked on. With the help of Greg Sidelnikov the new theme search should be complete at some point today or tomorrow. We’re also working on a new way to make start pages your homepage, and possibly an RSS feed.

We’ve gotten a lot of requests recently for additional custom links as well as an extended domain search (also covering functionality like “Search Pages from the UK”). We play to include these ideas in the site, and were really hoping the advanced preferences menu would make this 3.0 release. Given the amount of time the site has taken so far, we’re not sure if that’s going to happen. Our major concern is getting the site up so we can get back to putting out new themes. Anything that doesn’t make this release will most likely follow shortly. Stay tuned!

First of all, a big thanks to the video podcasters over at CommandN.tv for suggesting AwesomeStart on their show! We’re glad you like it!

Version 3.0 of the site is coming along a lot faster than we thought. The new design has been finalized, and it’s just a matter of coding at this point. The core site is being rewritten from the ground up. Everything will conform to HTML 4.01 and CSS standards to ensure that it looks good in everyone’s browser. Your start page will remain unaffected, so don’t worry.

The next big obstacle is databasing all the themes. AwesomeStart has well over 200 themes, so this could be a lengthy process. Until the site is complete, new themes are going to go on hold; we’re focusing 100% of our efforts on getting 3.0 built and online. It looks like the new site may launch as early as next month!

We’re beginning to work on version 3.0 of the site. With our one year anniversary only three months away, we’ve decided to give the site one last major overhaul this year. With any luck, the launch of version 3.0 will take place on August 1st. We’re still in the draft phases, so this date may change.

What’s in store for the new version? Where the 2.0 launch was more about start page technologies, this update will focus on changes to the core site. As mentioned previously, we are going to database our themes as well as the theme search. We’ll be giving the site a slicker “Web 2.0” look, and integrating RSS as well. The RSS feed will let people know when there’s a new developer’s log or when new themes have been added. If you have any other suggestions for the new version of the site, please contact us! Stay tuned for futher updates on our progress.