Headquarters
19th of June, 2008
Almost exactly one year ago I started a one page website at me.jimwhimpey.com (now gone) where I tried to aggregate all my online accounts into one. It aggregated the latest content from the web services I use, provided contact information and linked to all my sites whether they were aggregated or not. I thought it was a great idea, attempting reign in all my online activity, so did others. Morten and I started converting it into a web application which stagnated. Months after deleting me.jimwhimpey.com I came across Matthew Bischoff’s homepage and was instantly inspired.
Aggregating content from varied sources to a single page is cool, being able to do it is cool but ultimately, it’s pretty useless. Simple links to profiles are enough and it does the same job uniting all your online junk.
I think it only works when you’re linking to services and websites you actually use. Linking to your LinkedIn profile that only shows your name and place of employment helps no one and reduces the allure of other destinations listed — they might shell accounts too. I don’t oppose signing up for every service you can to secure your username in case you ever do use it, there’s just no value in listing it at your headquarters.
I feel the descriptions are important because I use all the services differently and complimentarily. I use del.icio.us but it’s not where I most often link to content I love or find interesting — I do that here. I use a YouTube account to subscribe to channels and record favourites but I wouldn’t use it to publish video, I imagine I’d use Vimeo for that. Before a visitor visits one of my profiles or accounts on an external service, they know how and why I use it and how it fits into my life.
I love the idea of a central station.
Design sidenote: The layout primarily uses ems for sizing. Go to jimwhimpey.com and hit command+ or command- (ctrl if you’re on Windows) and watch the layout resize with the text. I love this technique because it preserves a good line length. After seeing it work so nicely there I also converted Valhalla Island to an elastic layout where it counts.