| Guide | GDE-048 |
| Topic | Start.me for OSINT |
| Domain | OSINT tooling and workflow |
| Last updated | September 2026 |
Short answer: Organise the dashboard by investigation stage rather than by tool vendor, keep case-specific pages private or unlisted, and prune dead links on a schedule.
What is Start.me for OSINT?
Start.me for OSINT is the practice of using the Start.me dashboard platform to organise search engines, people-search tools, geolocation resources and archives into a single shared start page, so an investigation begins from one place rather than scattered bookmarks.
Start.me is a browser start-page platform that lets a user build a page of link widgets grouped into columns, plus notes and RSS widgets alongside them. It was not built for OSINT specifically, but a large, active community of OSINT practitioners publishes and shares curated Start.me pages as ready-made toolkits, and the platform's own start.me/osint page curates a selection of them.
Investigators use it to replace a scattered set of browser bookmarks with one organised, shareable workspace, to stand up a consistent tool set for a new case quickly, and to onboard new team members onto a common, pre-vetted set of resources rather than everyone building their own list from scratch.
| • | Consolidating a scattered set of bookmarked OSINT tools into one shareable workspace |
| • | Standing up a fresh, case-specific set of links at the start of a new investigation |
| • | Onboarding a new team member onto a consistent, pre-vetted tool set |
| • | Cloning a well-maintained public dashboard rather than rebuilding a widget set from scratch |
| • | Keeping a running notes trail alongside the tools used, without leaving the dashboard |
How do you build a Start.me dashboard for OSINT?
Six steps to turn Start.me from a blank page into a working, organised OSINT workspace.
The following resources are used across the steps below.
Start.me: The dashboard platform itself. Free tier supports one page; a paid tier adds more pages and shared team workspaces. No investigation data is stored beyond what you add to the page yourself.
start.me/osint: Start.me's own curated overview page, linking to public OSINT dashboards built by the community across investigation toolkits, source verification and threat intelligence. Free to browse.
OSINT Framework: A separate, free categorised directory of OSINT tools and data sources, useful as a cross-reference when deciding what to add to a new dashboard column.