If there are any questions you need answered but don't see here, please give us a shout and pick our tiny brains...

• Why are we here, and who sent us?

• What constitutes "cool"? (this is a REALLY important question!)

• Why do I see sites that I think SUCK here?

• Did you add the site I submitted yet?

• Why didn't you add it, and should I be offended?

• How long does it take you to get my submission, check out the site and add it to CoolHomepages?

• Are you looking for Partner sites to cross-promote with?

About 10 years ago, as a busy web designer, I wished I could scan good looking web design work to help inspire me for new projects from time to time. Sometimes I'd feel in a rut, and I often wished there was a good source to VISUALLY browse the coolest designs. This is not to say I wanted to steal other designs, which is a conclusion some people jump to -- this is to say that viewing creative work from others would open my thinking and allow me to take something I'd seen, and by the time I was done, I'd modified it into something distinct and my own.

CoolHomepages.com is the answer to this need, and thankfully, it's become evident that I wasn't the only one who was looking for a resource like this, based on all the great feedback we receive from all you webheads.

As for who sent us, it was our parents, I guess. Or maybe aliens. Or Elvis. Probably Elvis.

Cool can be a lot of things. Almost the only thing it can't be is something we've already seen over and over again. Our watchword is 'REMARKABLE' - there must be something remarkable about the homepage design that others may be interested in seeing. It could be a layout, a cool way to embed a Flash movie, maybe just the navigation scheme. Almost anything we haven't already seen before, and is clever and usable, could qualify.

We intend to include pages and designs that have done something unique, and something that works well for some reason, usually due to their attractiveness and functionality.

In the interest of pushing the envelope and breaking new ground, sometimes a design or element that's just plain different can be "cool". We look for pages that have something special happening on them that we think others might like to be exposed to.

The art of the homepage is a dynamic and changing pursuit, as users become more accustomed to navigational and informational devices and paradigms (I hate myself! I've used the word paradigm!). We can usually tell a bad homepage design right off the bat: it confuses us and is unattractive on some level. What makes a good homepage is a more difficult question, and 10 people will give you 10 answers to it.

We believe the best and coolest homepages are a mixture of functionality and visual attractiveness. What's the best percentage of each? That's a question you'll have to answer for yourself.

But what are Yahoo and NBCi and ParentSoup and all these other big sites that aren't very attractive doing here?

Good question. Good answer: A lot of us have to build these sites, and it's tough getting a hundred pieces of information all onto a page and making it navigable alone. This is a craft just as visual attractiveness is a craft - so for the benefit of those who are building these enormous portal type sites, we include the big boys as reference for you even though they are not great designs necessarily. If they're that big, they've gotta be doing something right on some level (we hope, anyway).

We strongly encourage you to submit homepage designs that you feel are outstanding in some way, in order to build this site and it's usefulness to the development community.

Do a search on the homepage to find out.

This is the hardest part of running this site, hands down. We are really sorry if we decided not to add your site, but please don't hate us. Somewhere along the line, we decide what's a remarkable homepage, and what's not really that remarkable.

Remember that this site is not about good content, it's about remarkable design and website building. We try hard to include the sites that strike us as remarkable, and that we think others may want to see to get ideas and inspiration.

We have to work to not include too many sites that look sort of the same.. there are tons of great designed sites that look really similar out there, so we don't include them all, we include a few of them. We're looking for good design, with variety and innovation primarily.

This site doesn't claim to be the last word on good homepage design, nor will it. What goes on this site belongs here, in our opinion, those 3 words being key. No more, no less. Have a nice day - hope you understand our position.

Anywhere from several weeks to several months because we are always wamped out of our minds with submissions, as well as (you know how it is) millions of things to deal with, not to mention non-working hours, as few as they are!

Definitely. If you have a site with reasonable traffic, drop us a line and describe the cross-pollination scenario you're invisioning. Could be link sharing, could be running each others ads, or even small promos for each others sites on our homepages.

Remember - the sites here have done something remarkable that others may be interested in using or seeing. It could be a site with bad navigation, but a beautiful color scheme. It could be a site with horrible colors, but a homepage layout that would really work for a lot of folks. Maybe they have a new take on rollover buttons that we haven't seen before and that others may be interested in seeing.

Of course we are more likely to feature a site that works well as a WHOLE, but that's not always the case.

It's true, there are some sites here that kind of suck, but there's something special, remarkable or innovative happening if you look.Or in some cases the site was included for a point of reference.

Lastly, one person's junk is another person's gold. It all depends on your needs and your perspective.

Thanks all. :-)