Minimal browser start page with search, clock, and your links — plus a simple landing page.
Open the start page · Install it on your computer · Questions and answers
The page is meant to stay quiet. Behind the search is a picture of misty trees, pink dunes or mountain haze, or no picture at all, just a soft colour. Each press on the round button bottom right moves to the next picture, and the button bottom left changes the background colour. Nothing else moves, so the picture is the only thing that changes.
Standard page, light theme |
Standard page, dark theme |
More screenshots, and the backgrounds in detail
Everything is optional. The settings start with a choice of page:
Minimal shows only the search and the clock, plus the colour button at the bottom left. Standard is the default: it adds the date, the Wikipedia button, the colour button at the bottom left and the wallpaper button at the bottom right. The AI shortcuts, time zones and the rest are there to discover in the settings.
Each option can still be changed on its own. When your choices match neither page, the page shows Advanced. A page never switches weather or your IP address on, since they send data.
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Search. Type a query and press Enter, or click the magnifier. It opens in the same tab; under Advanced you can choose a new tab instead. The icon on the left shows the search engine (separated from the field by a thin vertical rail, not a bordered chip); click it to switch between DuckDuckGo (the default), Kagi, Brave and Google. Your choice is remembered.
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Clock. The time sits above the search bar, with the date underneath. Click the time to cycle through 24-hour, 12-hour (AM/PM) and full time with seconds, or choose the format under Advanced. The colons stay still. Hover over the time to see your time zone and its UTC offset.
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Time zones. Optional. A small clock icon above the time opens up to five extra time zones, each with its UTC offset and a day difference when it is not today. Edit time zones in that window is where you change them.
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Date. Hover over the date for the ISO week and the day of the year. Click it to switch between the long form and a short numeric date, in the order of your browser. Under Advanced you can choose the order (day-month-year, month-day-year or year-month-day) and whether the date is long or short; the choices and clicking the date stay in step. The date follows your browser's language.
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Quote. Optional. A short quote from a philosopher or teacher, changing every six hours, in your browser's language. Click it for the next one.
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Links. The globe at the top left opens a Links window. It shows the permanent links as icons (Wikipedia, Google, Reuters, Apple, Microsoft, GitHub, Facebook, Instagram, X and Reddit) and your own links below, each with an optional description. Edit links takes you to where you add, order and edit them; you can keep up to 15. Hover the globe to see your own links. With Own links off, the globe is a plain Wikipedia link in your browser's language.
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AI. Under Data → AI one catalog lists built-in platforms (Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Duck.ai, Lumo, Kagi Assistant, Meta AI) and your own Add AI entries. In search puts a platform in the search-field overlay (type + Enter). Ask AI row also shows it under the bar (up to five). Turn the overlay and under-bar row on or off under Settings → Show. Links open in a new tab by default (change under Settings → General).
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Weather. Optional, off by default. Up to five extra places can be added under Data → Weather, reordered with ↑↓ (Your place stays at the top), and shown as chips in the forecast window. Typing a city suggests matches, so you can pick the right one. Hover over the temperature for a short preview of the next six hours; click it for the full forecast, with the next seven days and a link to Windy.
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IP details. A button in the settings shows the last IP address you asked for, with the city, provider and more. It is checked only when you press the check button, or when the weather uses your IP location.
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Background. The round button at the bottom right steps through the backgrounds: none, then each wallpaper you have switched on, and back again. The button at the bottom left changes the background colour in steps. In Manage data, the Background tab shows the wallpapers and lets you switch each one on or off. Under Show in Advanced, Background colour button hides or shows the colour button at the bottom left; with it hidden the background stays neutral. The background adapts to light and dark mode.
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Settings and help. Open the settings with the gear at the top right, or press
?. One window with Settings | Data: prefs (General, Show on page, Weather, Clock & date) and catalogs (Search, AI, Social, Links, Time zones, Weather, Background, Backup). A quiet search field filters sections and rows on both sides. Language lives under General (Automatic follows your browser). Help opens a guide to every feature. PressEscto close. -
Phones. The bottom controls sit above the browser's bar, and the layout fits landscape phones too.
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Hidden details. A few small details are tucked away in the page. Look closely and explore.
There are three ways to use it, from easiest to most control. You do not need to install anything for the first one.
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Use the online version. Open the start page, bookmark it and set it as your homepage. On a phone, in Safari, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen.
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Install a copy on your computer. Download the files, unzip them and serve the folder with a local web server (or use Wrangler), then set that address as your homepage. The page itself needs no account; searches, weather, IP details and the AI links still need an internet connection. Step-by-step instructions for Windows and macOS are in Installation.md.
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Use Git. If you already work with Git, clone the repository and pull new changes whenever you like. Details are in Installation.md.
Searches go straight to the search engine you chose. The page keeps your choices in your browser only, not on a server.
Nothing leaves the page unless you switch on one of these, or add your own AI shortcut — except Cloudflare Web Analytics, which collects cookieless, aggregate page views on the live site:
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Weather sends your IP address to ipapi.co to find your city, or the city you choose to Open-Meteo to find its coordinates. The forecast itself comes from Open-Meteo. Only while weather is on.
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Extra places on the weather send their name to Open-Meteo to find them.
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Custom AI shortcuts load their icon from their own website (
/favicon.ico) when the page opens, so that site sees your visit. Shortcuts without an icon show their name. -
Your IP address is only looked up when you press the check button in IP details, or when the weather uses it. It asks ipapi.co.
In the Advanced settings, Export data saves your choices and your own links, AI shortcuts, time zones and places to one JSON file that you keep yourself. Import data loads that file on another device. You choose Merge (the default: adds what is new and keeps what you have, with links matched by address) or Replace (overwrites everything). Nothing is sent anywhere when you export or import.
Import is limited to the same amounts the page allows: 15 links, 5 AI shortcuts, 5 time zones and 5 places. For more on this, see the questions and answers.
If you are comfortable editing text files, you can change the page yourself. Use any plain text editor, such as Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on macOS (set it to plain text first).
- Permanent links: edit
permanentLinks()inscript.js. - Search engines: edit the
engineslist inscript.js. - Colours: edit the colours in
color.css.
Short notes, one topic each:
- docs/FAQ.md: questions and answers about the page.
- docs/Screenshots.md: the settings and data windows, as pictures.
- docs/Wallpapers.md: the wallpaper set and the upload question.
- docs/Permanent-links.md: the permanent links and the candidates.
- docs/Built.md: what the page does now.
- docs/Development.md: how it is built, the decisions and why, what is still open, and how a release is made.
- docs/version-tag.md: the clickable version tag and build-time timestamp.
- docs/changelog/README.md: what changed in each version.
- Installation.md: how to install a copy.
Production is served by a Cloudflare Worker at start.soholocal.nl (not GitHub Pages). To run locally: npm install, then npm run dev or npm run check (Wrangler deploy dry-run).
Made by a4ds5t.
The wallpapers are photos from Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License:
- Misty forest: Dave Hoefler
- Pink dunes: John Fowler
- Mountain haze: Paul Earle
The weather forecast comes from Open-Meteo, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
The Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Brave and Google icons come from LobeHub Icons (MIT). The DuckDuckGo icon and the logos of Wikipedia, Google, Apple, Facebook, X, Instagram, GitHub and Reddit come from Simple Icons (CC0). The Kagi, Lumo and Meta AI icons are drawn from their logos. Microsoft and Reuters are shown by their names, since their logos are not in the open icon set. The logos are trademarks of their owners.
The gear icon is from Feather (MIT).
Released under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 (SPDX: PolyForm-Noncommercial-1.0.0). Noncommercial use is allowed under those terms. Commercial use needs a separate paid license from the copyright holder. See NOTICE. It comes without warranty, and the author is not liable for any damage.