Btownlinks complies list of most-used sites

For those students out there who wish all of their most-used websites were in one place, btownlinks.com is the answer.

Launched in fall 2010 by IU junior Forrest Fowler and sophomore at University of Wisconsin-Madison Tyler Henke, btownlinks.com provides an avenue to many websites, from Oncourse to Texts From Last Night.

Fowler and Henke, both Bloomington natives, wanted to provide students with a site that would put all of their websites in one convenient place.

The site contains RSS feeds from various news websites, links to social networking sites, links to MapQuest and Google Maps, a search engine and even an interactive weather forecast.

“We thought it would be cool to create a student internet portal,” Henke said.

Fowler and Henke worked with multiple web designers to get the site together.

They enlisted friends to help them spread the word through advertising with stickers and through Facebook.

They talked to hundreds of students to find out what they would like to see on the site.
As they received feedback from students, the plans changed from the original form.

“Originally, we just imagined a page with links to different sites as opposed to an interactive home page,” Henke said.

They said their site has about 2,000 users, and in the future, they would like to make the page customizable.

They said they hope to add more features to bring in students who haven’t used the site before.

Right now, they are working with their “deals” sections.

They like to find “cool deals at businesses that students didn’t necessarily know about,” Fowler said.

Fowler and Henke each have their own favorite part about the website. Henke said he likes being able to stay informed.

Fowler said he agreed with Henke and added that he also likes the accessibility of everything, especially the scores widget, which lists scores from college and professional sports games.

Henke and Fowler both said they have enjoyed this project.

“This project is really fun for us,” Henke said.

Overall, students seem to have positive responses to the website.
 
“It’s kind of like everything on one page,” freshman Lauren Christiansen said. “I like the weather app. I like how they have all of the news stuff up. It would kind of keep you in the loop of things.”

“A lot of the things I need are right here on the homepage,” junior Michael Lewis said. “It seems like a really useful website.”

Henke and Fowler said they welcome any feedback students have at info@btownlinks.com.

“We are always up for more feedback,” Henke said. “We want the site to be what you want, what Forrest wants, what everyone wants. Any feedback, we’ll listen and we’re excited about.”