Pin to start the icon of a website

[migrochefort]

After reading this article (http://www.windowscentral.com/google-search-comes-around-offers-pinnable-tile-windows-phone), I decided to build a simple tool that allow to pin to start the icon of any website.

The tool is still very simple and will be improved. The resolution of most icons is 57x57 (instead of the Windows Phone tile resolution of 173x173) and they may sometimes look stretched out. Another issue is that it doesn't work with all websites. It basically looks for the iOS Web Clip icon (which is use for iOS's "pin to start") and stretch it to the right resolution.

In the future, I may maintain a catalog of "better looking" icons or allow users to define their own. For the moment, it does the job and often looks better than the standard web preview.

Here's what it looks like : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BqlgfVDJMA

Want to give it a try? Go to http://www.web2tile.com

 

[alukard]

You sir are a genius. Thanks for taking the effort for such a little but significant feature.

i look forward to more from you.

 

[ZombieBacchus]

Thank you! You really should package this and put it on the marketplace. I would pay you a buck for this. You could add icons to your app for websites that we request that don't have an icon. I can't get this to work for mint.com and a couple of others.

 

[Reflexx]

Funny enough, I can't get it to work for the WPCentral forum page.

But great idea overall!

 

[sfleuriet]

Pretty cool, migrochefort! Nice idea

 

[migrochefort]

Version 1.1 is out!

Pinned web pages no longer point to web2tile's server. Once you pinned an app, you're completely independent from web2tile. Even if web2tile's server is down or slow, you will get the same speed as natively pinned pages.

Enjoy!

 

[Rhody#WP]

If I can make a suggestion, rather than keeping a catalog of images, you can keep a catalog of links to images. Those images are already out there. If you allow users to submit links, the text for the URLs will take up very little space and bandwidth. The app could present all the user-submitted image options (kind of like the way some applications do album art). Then you don't have to worry about copyright or trademark infrigement.

Great idea, BTW. It's about time someone did this.

 

[migrochefort]

I tried to find good icons for most popular websites but they're harder to find than you may think. I now have about 30 icons (that I have edited to look good as a tile), but I don't know if I should host myself or using a third-party service. Do you think I could upload these pictures to imageshack/imgur and link to them?

For the moment, I'm working on a "custom icon" feature in for version 1.2.

 

[Reflexx]

If you create a custom icon feature you will be a WP7 celebrity.

 

[Nothing Works]

After reading this article (http://www.windowscentral.com/google-search-comes-around-offers-pinnable-tile-windows-phone), I decided to build a simple tool that allow to pin to start the icon of any website.

The tool is still very simple and will be improved. The resolution of most icons is 57x57 (instead of the Windows Phone tile resolution of 173x173) and they may sometimes look stretched out. Another issue is that it doesn't work with all websites. It basically looks for the iOS Web Clip icon (which is use for iOS's "pin to start") and stretch it to the right resolution.

In the future, I may maintain a catalog of "better looking" icons or allow users to define their own. For the moment, it does the job and often looks better than the standard web preview.

Here's what it looks like : Web2Tile - Icon enabled "pin to start" - YouTube

Want to give it a try? Go to web2tile

Hi, this is a really good idea which you should make available as a paid app! Unfortunately it doesn't work at all on my HTC Radar, it just stops at a screen which says "stop the loading + pin to start" and never finishes. The phone is developer unlocked but isn't interop unlocked, does this matter?? I'm going to try it on my wife's HTC Mozart (1st gen) later to see if its just the Radar (which might mean 2nd gen WP7 phones can't use your tool at all?). This would be sooooo useful if I could get it working...any ideas?