Keeping this client request in mind, I decided to try out FirstPagr. FirstPagr describes itself this way:

… a tool to make a simple one-page website. If you are like us, you have blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon and so on. Make a simple introduction page with FirstPagr. Create lists, list items with links, descriptions and images, and drag and drop lists and items.

I signed up for FirstPagr and have to admit the process was a bit of a struggle because it requires OpenID.

FirstPagr’s interface is clean and simple. As you know if you’ve read any of my posts here, I’m a big fan of simple.

Start your page, add a list, add a link to the list, and include images and descriptions if you’d like. To experiment, I added a few of my blogs, links to a few client sites and links to other web sites of mine. I didn’t include images or descriptions so the result was a basic page with categories and names of sites that were clickable. Fast, easy, plain vanilla.

Moving list titles around or site titles was a cinch – just drag and drop to reorder. I don’t think there is a way to rearrange the lists and links into columns although that would be a very useful feature to make it even easier to access links without having to scroll down a very long page. A sample page made by Inomove Lab, the creator of FirstPagr, included graphics and descriptions, however, that made the page a lot longer to read and access the links.

Some things I will have to check into is how to create more than one FirstPagr page if they are requiring that you use OpenID. Will I have to create more than one OpenID account and then wouldn’t that defeat the purpose? Also, I couldn’t find a way to create more than one FirstPagr page. Maybe they aren’t thinking that this could be useful, however, I can see using FirstPagr for more than just that page leading others to my social networking sites. I could use FirstPagr for:

1. Links to media clips - Creating a link to online media clips can really be streamlined with FirstPagr and include an excerpt of the article and an image. I’ll be recommending this to my client, however, will also guide them in the creation of their OpenID account.
2. Links to login pages - This is something I have wanted for ages and was just thinking I’d have to code it all by hand. I want a single private page where I can access all of the login pages for all of my social networking sites and then additional similar private pages for my clients so I can run through all the sites, make updates, accept friend requests, etc. without having to use bookmarks or type in the URL each time. Basically a launching pad for social networking tasks.

Overall, being able to create a page of links with ease and make it available to the public -or keep it private – is incredibly helpful, and I bet over time, I’ll come up with many more uses for this simple tool.

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