StartHQ Targets And Launches Web Apps

    Have you ever been confused about what web apps to use for your project? Even someone like myself, who writes about web applications all day long, stares cluelessly into Google when faced a problem where there should be an obvious online solution. But Helsinki-based StartHQ is a new web app directory and browser home-page replacement that aides in finding the best app for you to get your job done, by categorizing apps, making them easier to search for, and making them easy to find again once you’ve signed up for them.

    “This is a recurring problem, as I found while working for a number of startups and coaching at Startup Sauna,” says Oleg Podsechin, behind StartHQ. “For example it took us a few weeks and multiple conference calls to identify the right web app to handle Startup Sauna warmup submissions.”

    Users can search for apps using the search bar, which does require you to have some idea of what you’re looking for. Otherwise, you can select applications by categories like sales, project management, marketing, or development. Once an app is selected from search, StartHQ shares more information about the app’s speed, by plugging into Google’s speed test, as well as a ranking on the trust, reliability, and privacy, based on Web Of Trust’s API.

    Now that you’ve got these killer web apps, StartHQ helps you find them again by replacing your homepage. The design is quite similar to Chrome’s new tab page by displaying thumbnail screenshots.

    Upcoming features include app recommendations based on the apps you’ve added to your launcher.

    To the average consumer, these features don’t stand out much compared to your standard browser setup. But at an enterprise level the perspective changes. Companies are paying a lot for enterprise web apps and services, but once they do so it’s unclear how often these apps are used in day-to-day practice. So StartHQ sees value in collecting information about app usage, especially as Shadow IT continues to trouble CIOs.

    So as it stands, there is an element of “great, you reinvented Chrome’s ‘new tab’ page,” but there’s big potential value in what they’re doing. Gatner has claimed that Hybrid IT and Enterprise App Stores are part of the top 10 strategic tech trends this year, and if StartHQ pulls it off, they can become a nice platform sitting on top of that sector.