beginpagina

Beginpagina is a Dutch term that literally translates to “start page” or “home page.” In everyday use, it refers to the main page of a website—the gateway users use to access content, services, and navigation within that site. The words are also associated with a broader online phenomenon in the Netherlands, where many portals presented themselves as a central starting point for internet users.

Beginpagina.nl, a well-known Dutch online portal, functioned as both a directory and a starting page. It organized links and resources into categories, offering easy access to news, blogs, forums, and various services. The site typically combined user-submitted links with editorial moderation, allowing visitors to discover and bookmark relevant websites from a centralized hub. Over time, such portals aimed to simplify web navigation in an era when search engines were expanding but not yet as dominant as they would become.

In addition to acting as a directory, beginpagina-style portals often featured personalized elements, user communities, and snippets of content to encourage engagement. They reflected a period when the web was more fragmented across niche sites, and a central starting point could save time for daily internet use. With the rise of advanced search engines and social media, the prominence of single, all-purpose portals declined, though some beginpagina sites continued to operate with updated formats or integrated services.

See also: homepage, start page, web portal.