Choose Your Own “Home Page”
By Ira Wilsker
WEBSITES:
http://my.yahoo.com
http://www.live.com
http://www.msn.com
http://www.theexaminer.com
http://www.mozilla.com
http://my.netscape.com
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
I work on a lot of different computers at a variety of locations, and
one factor that consistently astounds me is that many people have
blissfully ignorantly never changed their startup “home page” from its
default. This is the page that first opens when the user connects to
the internet. For example, many Dell computers have the Dell website
set for the startup page when the user first accesses the internet,
while Windows itself, unless otherwise changed, defaults to
Microsoft’s MSN home page, making it one of the mostly used startup
pages. Many internet service providers (ISP), such as AOL, AT&T, and
others changed the users’ home page to the ISP’s selected home page.
Startup or “home” pages are big business because they are commonly
advertiser supported, and the more views (also referred to in the
industry as “hits”), the more revenue generated by the host. This
on-screen real estate is so valuable that a type of malware or spyware,
sometimes known as homepage hijackers, will attempt to change your
homepage to its client’s home page, for which the miscreant receives
compensation for each page such changed.
There are many different services offering home pages, and if the user
finds one that he likes, it is very easy to make the selected page the
new home page. The process for selecting the default home page is the
same for most browsers. Using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE),
which is still the most widely used browser in the world, the process
is simple. If the user visits a website that he would like as his
homepage, he simply clicks on “Tools” on the menu bar, and then that
will open a window where the home page can be selected. If the open
page is what is desired, then click on the “Use Current” radio button,
and the current page will be displayed each time the browser is
loaded. If “Use Default” is selected, the home page will revert back
to the Microsoft (or other manufacturer) default start up page. On the
new Internet Explorer 7 (Beta), which offers tabbed browsing, a
different home or startup page can be selected for each tab. For those
who do not want to connect to any page at all when loading the
browser, IE7Beta offers the option of a blank page. All versions of IE
also allow for the manual entering of any selected internet address
for a home page. To directly go back to the home page at any time,
simply click on the little house or “home” icon on the menu bar.
Firefox (www.mozilla.com), one of the most popular browsers behind IE,
offers a simple interface to select or change the homepage. Clicking
on “Tools” on the menu bar opens a window where “General” can be
selected, and then “Home Page”. Firefox allows the address to be
manually entered, or the current page loaded can be selected. Other
options allow for the home page to be selected from a previously saved
bookmark (Internet Explorer calls these “Favorites”), or the option
for a blank startup page can be selected. Firefox also offers the
little house on the menu bar for instant access to the home page.
There are many choices for a home page, which is totally up to the
user. Some users use their web mail accounts as a home page, first
displaying their email when connecting to the internet, while others
may choose retailers, auction sites, employer web pages, search
engines (such as Google or Yahoo), newspapers (such as the Examiner at
www.theexaminer.com), or any other page of interest. While any page
can be selected as a home page, the most popular home pages selected
are usually news and information based pages.
My personal favorite, which I use on all of my computers, is “My
Yahoo”, at my.yahoo.com. I have found My Yahoo to be the most
comprehensive and flexible home page. Being an information junkie, I
have customized my My Yahoo page to include stock and mutual fund
listings, news from dozens of sources, weather, lottery results,
sports scores, my personal calendar, latest emails received, TV
listings, and other information. My Yahoo, which is very easy to
configure, directly offers thousands of choices. Many information
resources, such as the Examiner, are now using “RSS” or “XML” feeds as
a news source, and these can be added to My Yahoo often with a single
mouse click. My Yahoo is also customizable with hundreds of
backgrounds, color schemes, layouts, or other features to personalize
it.
Microsoft is currently testing a new homepage intended to at first
supplement its flagship homepage at www.msn.com, and maybe later
replace it. This new homepage, currently in beta testing, is currently
online at www.live.com . It will be a strong competitor to My Yahoo,
offering news, sports, weather, email, and other resources in columns
that are infinitely customizable.
There are countless other “My” homepages available, such as AOL’s
my.netscape.com, and other personalized home pages, including Google’s
“Personalized Home” link sitting quietly on the top right corner of
the popular google.com website. All of these home pages can be easily
customized to suit individual needs.
http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
There is no need to continue to use the default startup or home page
provided by your operating system or ISP. Investigate some of the
alternatives, and increase your enjoyment of the web.