Xerpi's #1 Fan
October 7th, 2008

"Every time I use my computer, I use Xerpi. And I use my computer every day!"
I asked Xerpi's founder who our #1 fan was — and he pointed me to Ali Lopez.
She's been using Xerpi almost since the day it was started (after hearing about it from the site's founder, Con Way Ling.) In fact, Ali was using Xerpi when I called her, even though she was at work! "That's what's great about it," she says. "I use it everywhere!"
Her home page probably looks a lot like yours. She's got 22 different blocks, filled with nearly 100 favorites. But even when she's at a friend's house, Ali still brings up her favorites on her Xerpi page. "Even when I was in Mexico, I always brought up my Xerpi page," Ali remembers — and that's not all. As she travelled through Mexico, she brought up her Xerpi home page in over 20 different internet cafes throughout the country!
What was our #1 fan doing with Xerpi in a foreign country? "Basically, I'd keep in touch with people," she says. "I'd email my friends and family and that sort of thing and talk on Skype." Xerpi was especially useful because Ali has four different email addresses — and the links are all waiting for her on her Xerpi home page. "There's school email, HotMail, Gmail accounts... If I'm going to check my email, it's easier to have all of them there. It's just really efficient for me!" On another trip, Ali even pulled up her Xerpi home page in Spain!
I asked a few more questions, and discovered that there's a reason why some people crave Xerpi over a giant list of bookmarks in their web browser. "The 'bookmark' system is always very messy for me, because I'm a very visual person," Ali says. "I like to see everything organized in sections.
"So I just added all my stuff to Xerpi — and I just thought it was the greatest thing! I'm on my computer a lot, and Xerpi has everything that I use." Now whenever Ali opens her browser, Xerpi is the first thing she sees. "It makes it really efficient for me... I don't understand why more people don't use it!"
Ali's a graduate student getting a masters degree in community organizing, and her link blocks have everything a student could need — financial aid, yoga, art, weather, religion, movies (And she even created a separate page of links to help with her homework.) But what makes Xerpi useful for Ali isn't a complicated philosophy. In fact, if anything, it's a simple value proposition. "I feel like it works for me," Ali says. "It feels familiar. It's like part of the life of my computer."
I asked if there was anything else she liked about Xerpi, and her answer showed her enthusiasm. "I like the way the logo spells Xerpi with a heart."
And as we talked, Ali suddenly thought of more things she wanted to add to her home page. "I always add things... To me the thing that's great about Xerpi is it's very practical and efficient."
As a final question, I asked if she was excited about Xerpi.
"Of course I'm excited. I love it!"

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