why use it?
Because I said so!
Ok really...
You may notice that this site is a bit simple looking, and that's the point. It's easy to find what you want and it loads super quickly. That is what Ngumbi is all about. I initially created this site with power users in mind, but anyone can benefit by its ease of use! It's great on a smartphone as well. Ngumbi is for those who want simplicity, convenience, mobility, and a little bit more control. Why is it better than saving your links in bookmarks/favorites? Well the obvious answer is that you can access this easily from any computer or phone and with bookmarks you can't. Also, if you're like me, you don't like to use the browser's bookmarks for going to sites you use every day. I use it as more of a repository for places I want to save and will go back to when I need to, but not often. Plus I have a lot of links in there and it's gotten a little messy. I don't argue that Ngumbi is better in all respects than every other homepage out there, but it does certainly have advantages that appeal to people. Some of my friends used just google.com for their homepage and even "about:blank", no homepage at all, so it would load fast. Ngumbi takes this minimalist attitude and runs with it. Google alone makes for a good homepage, but what if you could have a few links of your own to go with it? There wasn't much in the way of personalized homepage services when Ngumbi was conceived in 2003, but now there are several on the web. They feature fancy interfaces for editing your page and lots of widgets for things like weather and news. They look nice and are cool at first but then you notice how annoying they are. They are a bit slow, sometimes have annoying ads, and often just look like a jumbled mess. If you really want a lot of fancy stuff on your homepage, Ngumbi isn't for you. 
Another problem with others is that you may see tomorrow's weather compressed into a nice little sun and cloud picture with a couple numbers but what about radar? or storm warnings? or weather at another location? You're better off just going to your favorite weather website for your location where you can see the entire week's forecast, full current conditions, and radar images and animations. The others don't help you at all with that. If you aren't currently at your Ngumbi homepage, it takes just two clicks (Home button, then your link) to get to any of your frequently used links. That's the way a homepage is meant to be. |