Hello! In case you didn't already know it,
I own and run myHq.com. This page is for some background on what myHq
is about and why it exists. Feel free to
email me if you want any new features.
If you haven't noticed, the feature list is already pretty complete at
the moment. Nevertheless, you can be sure that there would be more
improvements to come.
So how did myHq.com come about? I was creating my 'homepage' like so many others in '95.
It was my freshman year in college and the net was brand new!
Well, to cut the story very short, this site only came online in Fall '98.
I figured I got tired of going into html and editing the links myself
so now you have myHq! As with creating sites like these, the amount of
work to create a multi user version is trivial compared to the total benefits
that all the users would accrue. So now you have a nice functional
personal bookmark site!
What is the philosophy behind myHq? Very simply, functionality. As much deadweight as possible is removed
from the pages so that the site works well (ie. FAST).
You shouldn't see any flashy graphics that will slow you down...
This site is not about flash.
Also, I wanted one-click
access to other sites and so everything should fit on one page without
scrolling. Obviously, if you have way too many links that is unavoidable.
Why aren't there any banner ads? First, they slow down page loads. In case you are wondering, I
am the #1 user of this site. Not so much in terms of the # of links
but I hit the site on average 20-30 times a day. I personally do not like
being slowed down by banner advertising on my OWN homepage. Would you?
Sides, with a banner ad, it will take up screen real estate. And that
means less links before I have to scroll (as for scrolling, I would
suggest getting a Logitech Wheel Mouse. It's EXCELLENT! My distaste for
scrolling, although still measurable, has significantly been reduced)
So, how am I gonna keep this thing alive? Well, for now, it is still affordably cheap. As a result
of the upgrade in the server, the costs of this site has increased. It
is still within affordability but I do notice the amount now.
In the future, I am considering,
- using that one bar area below the search box for sponsored links.
- creating a shopping page. ( ie. follow the crowd and
create some e-commerce revenue..)
At no time will I put a big banner ad at the top of the page. As
before, it defeats the idea of convenience/practicality
What am I doing now? For myHq, little enchancements here and there. You should see more
functionality come about. If you want something in particular,
feel free to email me and
I'll keep what you want in mind.
June 16 1999 -
Well, I'm in SF now. Still pretty free but internet access is slow (ahem,
compared to the network access I enjoyed in UPenn).
I'm waiting for DSL to be set up. Which in theory, according to Pac Bell
should be done on June 26th... We shall see.
June 29th 1999 -
DSL came online painlessly on the 23rd... they were early. Nice. Turns out
I live 2 blocks or so from the central office. The tech guy from PacBell,
a Mr. Strickland, was fast, efficient and friendly, told me that
I should be able to upgrade my line from the current 1.5M/128Kbps service
to a full 6M/1.5M service if I so desired to. Very Nice. DSL by the way
is 39 for DSL + 10 for the 'global service provider' which provides access
to the internet. Thus $49/month is the total I pay w/ a one year service
contract. Totally reasonable. Try it out. You would probably like it!
Nov 14th 1999-
Well, I've been working for about 4 months now in SF (I am working at Scient).
Fun, but incredibly
time consuming. myHq is doing pretty well, I put out a press release for
fun and it doubled the user base. Fun! However, because
of time constraints, myHq is at the crossroads... many paths lie ahead
(productize? / go start-up? / open-source?) , but
for longtime users, not to worry, this service would continue as long
as it remains useful. (ie. a very very long time!) Afterall.. I'm still using
myHq a couple of dozen times a day!.
Nov 19th, 2001 - It seems like November tends to be the time I update
site's I've done. Well, myHq has been doing pretty well. I myself am now still
in SF, though not at Scient anymore. The boom has passed and it was fun. I am
considering updating myHq completely with my greater experience but we shall
see when that can occur. In the meantime, you can read a little more about
what I've been doing at http://www.myhobby.com/about.html