By Ethan Maurice | May 17, 2023
In 2021, I created the “Needlestack”, a simple grassroots solution to making the browse the web by best.
Playing on the metaphor of “finding a needle in a haystack,” the Needlestack was a list of links to what I personally felt were the best pages on the entire internet. The idea was to make my Needlestack, encourage others to make their own, and to link them together — weaving a navigable web of links to the best pages on the web.
I published my Needlestack and invited others with an online presence to do the same. A good bunch expressed excitement! But only a handful of others actually got around to building their own. Two years out, the Needlestack hasn’t exactly achieved critical mass.
I still love the idea and exploring other Needlestacks has been fascinating in many ways. However, I have realized that, at first glance, nobody knows what Needlestack means. And first glances really matter on the internet.
So, I decided to rename and reimagine the idea:
My Needlestack is now called Favorites.
In my site’s navigation, I think “Favorites” makes more immediate sense. A sweet new dropdown-menu also subdivides my Favorites into the following categories:
The bottom link in that dropdown menu is More Favorites — a list of links to the Favorites (and Needlestacks) others have made. These contain many exceptional links, and are totally worth exploring as well.
If you have a website and the spirit moves you, I beckon you to help make the internet browsable by best and build your own! If you do, submit the link via the form at the bottom of the More Favorites page and I’ll add yours to the list.
