Search Engines Library, Toolbar for Notes, and Emojis π₯³
Do you wonder what we’ve been up to lately? We improved the Search Bar with more default search engines, like Lycos, DuckDuckGo, or IMDB. Really cool! We also added a toolbar to the Notes widget and Emoji support for widget titles. Read on to learn all about it.
Search Engines Library
Every start page comes with a default Search Bar. We think it’s a compelling feature, and that’s why it’s so prominent and well-accessible. You’ll find a Google Custom search engine dedicated to results from our public pages and also Bing and Yahoo for quick access.
It’s also been possible to add custom search engines, to make it easier to access your favorite results.
As of today, we added more functionality:
- Manually sort your Search engines.
- Restyling for simplicity and ease of use.
- More default search engines to choose from.
The list of search engines to choose from is extensive. If you think we missed one, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments.
Instructions to add search engines
- Open a start page and locate the Search box in the center. If you don’t see it, you might have to unhide it. Click the Me icon > Settings > Hide search bar toggle. It should appear immediately.
- Click the search engine icon on the left side of your search box. You’ll see a list of all your installed search engines.
- Click Search settings > Add search engine.
- Now you’ll see a list of all available default search engines. Click to add.
Toolbar for Notes
We think taking notes on start.me should be simple. That’s why we limited the styling options of the Notes widget and offered Markdown to add options like bold, italic, and underline to your text.
We thought it got the job done, but for many users, this clearly wasn’t the case. It was just a bit too technical. On their request, we’ve added a Toolbar to our Notes widget. Now, when you click the Pencil icon in the header of your page, you’ll find options to click and use:
- Add Bold, Italics, or Underline to your text.
- Add a list with bullet points.
- Add a numbered list.
- Add a horizontal line as a divider.
We still support Markdown. When you click the Mβ icon, the toolbar will disappear, and you’ll see your text with the Markdown codes applied.
Emoji support for widget titles
And finally, just to make your start.me experience a bit more fun, we’ve decided to give all our users the option to add emojis to any widget. It’s easy!
- Go to a widget and click the Pencil icon.
- You’ll see an emoji icon in the header. Click it to open the emoji sidebar, where you can select any emoji, including food, travel, or sports icons.
- If you want to add it to the body of the text, just copy (or move it) from the header icon.
What do you think?
All the new features we introduce today are free for all users. We hope that you will try them out right away. And if you like it (or not!) please let us know in the comments below. We love to hear from the community!
18 Replies to “Search Engines Library, Toolbar for Notes, and Emojis π₯³”
Stefan,
valuable insights on the new updates the website has to offer.
The article highlights the new features that users can now access, including a new search engine library, WYSIWYG support, and emojis.
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Stefan’s writing style is engaging and informative, making it an interesting read for anyone interested in learning more about start.me’s features.
The use of emojis in the article’s title is eye-catching and adds an element of fun to the piece.
I Love the writing style of this article, plus has visuals that points important elements.
A great resource for start.me plus when we all hear about added simplicity…
Keep up the great work
Thank you so much, Rina! ππ
Has anyone noticed that the ‘Change page background” is very buggy at the moment and not changing?
Hi Daniel, thanks for mentioning this! We checked it immediately, but we couldn’t reproduce it. Maybe you could try deleting the cache of your browser and forcing a refresh? We have been making some changes to the code (in the background), so maybe that will do the trick. If not, don’t hesitate to contact our support team with more information.
So why my lately made comment does not showing up here?
Hi Pascal, thanks for taking the time to comment. I’ve searched our system, and unfortunately, I haven’t seen it. We have automated spam detection, but I can’t find it there either. We also manually approve every comment, so I’m not sure what happened here. Please give your comment in a reply to this comment, and if it’s of value to our blog readers, you’ll see it appear here. We’re looking forward to your reaction!
Look Stefan, I believe this Mβ© buttons and the whole idea of providing an easier way to get along with 5 basic and very easy to remember Markdown syntaxes is from ground up the wrong way. It hurts me a bit if i see that you put Mβ© on the spare bench and add a few clutter buttons instead in front.
I believe the right way would be, to convince people to learn the Markdown syntax and provide resources and educational posts. It is a nice little mark-up language and it is basic knowledge nowadays as many of the great tools let you style your content using Mβ©…
And for me it means one more klick to edit. And something is not working the same way with the spaces between paragraphs. Need to figure out why or how.
If this buttons are really needed, they should be hidden and by click being fetched. Exactly the other way around as it is now. My opinion, Stefan.
I always liked what you guys do and enjoy all the features you added in the past couples of years, but this update makes no sense for me.
By the way, the unclutter the header line, the emoticon button could be placed somewhere in the page header. One single button to reach all the emoticons and copy them….
Hope this will be published that way….
Hi Pascal, I’m glad that you took the time to reply! You’ve touched on an issue we entirely agree with: our current Notes widget isn’t that great. And it should be. So, honestly, we’ve been talking about decluttering it again and making some improvements. The issue with Markdown is tricky: we always wanted to promote Markdown, but many users keep asking why we don’t support more layout options. Hence the buttons. We’re not there yet, but with input like yours, we can continue improving. Please stay tuned for our next iteration!
I was just looking at the new widget emoji option. Where do I find all of the colored emojis that you are showing in your example? I have almost all black-n-white icons with just a very few colored ones scattered under ‘peoples’, ‘activities’, and ‘symbols’.
I’m sorry to hear this, Bob. We’ve tested this in multiple browsers and on multiple machines, and we haven’t seen this error before. Even in Dark mode, you should still get the colored emojis. We need to investigate this some more, with more details about the computer you’re using, the browser (+ version), and clear reproduction of this issue. We’d also like the email address of the account you get this error from. Please reply to this comment with this information, and I’ll make a support ticket. Or you can send it directly to our support team: support@start.me. Thanks for helping us out here!
Great job! But I really miss being able to use keyboard shortcuts (no mouse required) with the Firefox extension. It really speeds up the entire Start.me process! Will you be re-implementing this functionality soon?
Thanks, Rocky! Your question about keyboard shortcuts is interesting, as we support this feature with our Bookmarker extension (current version 3.2.2). What you do, is click the extension icon to open the extension window. In the top right, you’ll see a cog. Click it to open your preferences. The second tab is shortcuts, and this is where you’ll see the default shortcuts (ctrl-alt-b). I’ve just tested it, and the add new bookmark works just fine, but I do see some issues we’ll investigate. Thanks for mentioning this to us, and I hope this helps!
Thanks Stefan, it’s great to have those shortcuts. But when I first began with Start.me (Jan 2022), the Firefox extension also had the ability to select the Page/Widget/Group to save the bookmark in by using the Arrow/Page Up and Down/Enter keys without having to reach for the mouse. Is it possible to incorporate this functionality again when you update the extension?
Hi Rocky, thanks for your comment! Personally, I didn’t know we offered the functionality you mentioned, so I wasn’t even aware that we lost it. Now that I’ve checked it, I think you’re right: it could make locating destinations and saving bookmarks quicker. And since that’s our core business, I’ll ask the developers to take a stab at reintroducing it. Stay tuned!
Great work, thanks. I’m a huge fan of Start.Me, owning lifetime licences for both personal and business use. It’s encouraging to see the ongoing development and improvements.
Great to hear you’re a fan, Lee! And yes, we love to continue developing and improving our service. We’re glad you appreciate it!
Thanks for continuing to support markdown in the notes widget.
You’re very welcome, Joe!