Navigation Bar

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The navigation bar is visible at the bottom of the index page, as well as most pages on homestarrunner.com.

The navigation bar (abbreviated as NavBar) is a menu that appears in the footer of almost every page on the website. This bar provides links to the most commonly accessed sections of the website. As of 2025, the NavBar consists of:

(h*r logo)  main  toons  sbemails  games  stores  contact  sitemap

The NavBar is made out of HTML assets, rather than Flash as used for most prior iterations and site content.

History

Prior to the implementation of the navbar, a pop-up menu was embedded in old toons and pages (such as the Yearbook Character Page, where it can still be seen), revealed by mousing over the bottom of the toon frame. This used similar "bubble" graphics to the main pages:

home  'toons  games  characters  downloads  store  e-mail  museum

Original NavBar

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Original NavBar options

A navigation bar was first implemented on the site in 2003. Originally constructed out of HTML text, it was rebuilt as a Flash component in July 2004. This initial iteration of the menu consisted of:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  contact  legal stuff

The random toon function was added after "legal stuff" (which was shortened to "legal" to make room) sometime between August 18 and 22, 2005:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  contact  legal  rando

A link to Podstar Runner was added between "sb emails" and "contact" on March 1, 2007:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  podcast  contact  legal  rando

"Podcast" was replaced with a "subscribe" link to the FeedBurner RSS feed between October 22 and 27, 2009:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  subscribe  contact  legal  rando

The "store" text color was changed to red sometime between January 17 and 21, 2010 (around the time the "shop our store" button was added to the index page); this was reverted between April 1 and 4, 2010:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  subscribe  contact  legal  rando

"Subscribe" was replaced by a link to the homestarrunnerdotcom YouTube channel between March 9 and April 2, 2015. This was the final iteration of the original NavBar:
main  toons  games  characters  downloads  store  sb emails  youtube  contact  legal  rando

Current NavBar

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The current NavBar menu

The modern NavBar redesign was first seen December 20, 2020, on the Stinkoman 20X6 page after its Version 8.0 update — it was applied to the entire site on December 31 of that year. This Navbar is made out of HTML assets, in contrast with prior iterations being Flash files.
(h*r logo)  main  toons  sbemails  games  stores  contact

On April 16, 2025, a link to the sitemap was added; this coincided with the 25th-anniversary toon Back To A Website.
(h*r logo)  main  toons  sbemails  games  stores  contact  sitemap

Pages without the NavBar

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virus memorably featured Homestar Runner interacting with the NavBar.

• Astro-Lite 2600 — as of its July 29, 2004 inclusion in the Handheld Games Menu
• Under Construction — in its original April Fools' Day presentation
• Strong Bad Email virus and Main Page 22 — Both include recreations of the then-current NavBar as part of the Flash files, allowing for The Virus to distort its function as part of the toon's narrative.

See Also

• Site Components
• Index Page
• Main Pages
• homestarrunner.com

External Links

• Original NavBar