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When you launched your computer’s browser, which home page greeted you? Was it your favorite website? Was it your carefully crafted custom home page? Was it the last page you had open when you closed your browser? Was it a page chosen by your Internet service provider?
You may not have given much thought to choosing your home page or even realized that you could change it, but you should give your home page some thought. Your home page is a tool and like any tool, it should work for you.
Home pages are easy to set and can save you from having to head to where you want to be after you open your browser. They can make life more convenient and give you important information to help you start your day. They can instantly take you to where you left off if you were in the middle of researching a project.
I recently signed up for a new Internet Service Provider (ISP) and after I was done installing the modem and setting up the connection on my computer, I was surprised to see that the software I installed had reset my browser’s home page to the ISP’s website.
Not appreciated.
I quickly switched my home page back to my preference, but that unwelcome bit of home page hijacking led me to think about the issue.
Taking a few minutes to set your home page now can save you some precious time later.
Your Home Page Options
1. Your Favorite Website
If you find yourself checking Facebook, email, Pinterest, your own website or another site the first thing every day, consider making that site your home page. No need to navigate there, it will load automatically each time you open your browser.
To set your favorite website as your home page, check out these excellent instructions from Wikihow. Make sure to bookmark these instructions in case your favorite website changes, perhaps from eHarmony to The Knot.
2. Your Custom Home Page
You can create a custom home page that provides you with a collection of information that’s important to you, such as social media, email, news, weather, sports, stocks and more. Sites such as My Yahoo, iGoogle, My MSN, and Netvibes let you customize your content on a personalized home page. Some of these sites let you choose custom wallpaper, colors and other options.
My Yahoo gives you a wide range of choices such as adding your email, news feeds, RSS feeds, weather, stocks, movie listings, sports scores, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Gold Box deals, horoscope, recipe of the day, GasBuddy prices, and dozens of other types of content. You can choose from 71 different themes or create a custom theme of your own. You can also arrange the layout of the page.
iGoogle also lets you customize a home page but don’t get too used to it. Google is getting rid of iGoogle November 1, 2013, encouraging you to use its Chrome browser as a replacement and add gadgets to your home page there.
If you’re missing your custom home page when you’re away from your computer, not a problem. Many of these custom home pages offer mobile apps to keep you up-to-date when you’re on the go, though iGoogle has already discontinued its mobile app.
3. Coming Back to Where You Left Off
You can have your browser to open to the page(s) you last had open when you closed your browser instead of opening to your home page. With this option, you can still set a home page, for easy navigation by hitting the home icon on your browser’s toolbar, but the browser won’t open to the home page. Instead, the browser will automatically open to the last windows you had open.
[note]Be careful with this option if you’re using a shared computer. [/note]
Here is how to select this setting in:
- Chrome: click on the wrench in the upper right corner=> Settings=> On startup=> Continue where I left off
- Firefox: click on the Firefox tab in the upper left corner=> Options=> Options (sic)=> General=> When Firefox starts=> Show my windows and tabs from last time
- Internet Explorer: you can manually open your last browsing session. Go to Tools=> Reopen Last Browsing Session. Unfortunately, making this setting automatic when you open your browser is not an option in Internet Explorer
- Safari: click on Settings=> General=> Safari opens with=> All windows from last session
- Opera: click on the Opera tab in the upper left corner of your screen, choose Settings=> General=> Startup=> Continue from Last Time.
4. Blank Page
For the quickest loading time and optimal privacy, use a blank page as your home page. Set about:blank as your home page and be greeted with a blank screen when you open your browser.
Poll
What do you use as your home page? Take today’s Wonder of Tech poll and let us know!
Bottom Line
Choose your home page. By taking a few minutes to set your home page you can save a few minutes every time you open your browser.
Have you set your home page? Have you changed your home page recently? Have you ever had your home page set for you? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Tech News
Great news for Spotify and Kindle Fire fans! Spotify, the popular Internet radio service, is now available as a free app for the Kindle Fire. You can download your Spotify app at the Amazon Appstore.
*Lego computer image by Kenny Louie
**Home key image by FreeDigitalPhotos.net
My home page is my blog, so I can be sure it’s working. My computer is doing weird things today, even more weird than usual. It usually turns the magnifier on and off at random, despite the fact I renamed magnify.exe. Now it’s displaying webpage with bits missing and refusing to let me scroll until I have switched tabs!
I took interesting photos yesterday, shame the weather wasn’t better. It was in the grounds of a Manor House, the house is long gone but the grounds were interesting.
Hi Mike, Great idea to have your blog be your home page. As you have two blogs, which one is your home page?
Is your problem with your computer just when you’re on the Internet? If so, try switching browsers to see if you still have the problem.
I look forward to seeing your new pictures, Mike!
It’s a fact that our homepage is where we really like to start our web journey. We should begin it pleasantly. It’s not fair when an ISP or application highjacks it.
Internet is full of distractions and it’s no wonder Richard Branson spends lots of his time offline thinking about what he should do next. Your plans come true if you are focused.
So, I’d rather have my own specific page where I’ve set a series of Chrome applications that serves me like a navigation menu, quickly loaded that leads me where I want to go right away. This brings down the possibility of distraction to almost zero.
Rahman Mehraby
Hi Rahman, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, it’s not fair when someone hijacks your home page and the Internet is certainly full of distractions! If you want to avoid being distracted, you could try opening your browser to a blank screen. Then you would have a totally blank slate to start your browsing experience. 🙂
Hi Carolyn
My browser always starts up on iGoogle. It is loading fast and show me a lot of news from websites I often visits. Often when I start a browser it is because I need to find information fast. What is better for that than Google? iGoogle give me all that I want and I can customize it like I want to.
Hi Thomas, You’re right, iGoogle makes for a very powerful home page. I wish Google wasn’t getting rid of it next year! Using widgets on Chrome just isn’t the same. But Google has gotten rid of a lot of websites that I like this year. 😐
I know. I am really going to miss iGoogle when they shut it down 🙁
I know. I still miss Aardvark, a great site that Google bought and shut down. I even had a blog post written about it that I never got to publish.
But iGoogle was something that a lot of people use every day. If Google wants to gather information on people, then iGoogle is a good way of doing it. But I think they want people to migrate to Chrome so that’s the way they’re going to accomplish that goal, I guess.
Indeed, no place like the home page 🙂
Many people use the home page in different ways. My home page is the blog page. I’ve seen many people have details about them, their products etc in the home page.
The overall goal may depend as well. I’ve seen many people trying to make people convert, e.g email list, product sales etc. As long as the visitors feel at home, one would have a better chance.. I believe
Hi Shamelle, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, it can be very handy to have your own website as your home page. That way you can see traffic, respond to comments and write new posts immediately as soon as you open your browser. Very handy! :-bd
Interesting poll and post Carolyn!
Like Mike, my blog is my homepage, though I’ve also chosen my Gmail account and a few other social media sites that are usually open most of the time that I sit down to work.
I’ve never tried customizing my homepage using My Yahoo or the other sites you have mentioned, though trying out colorful wallpapers and things like that would be a nice change – something worth trying. But yes, that’s surely going to distract me from work a great deal too. 🙂
Thanks for sharing and I look forward to checking out the poll results. 🙂
Hi Harleena, You might enjoy having a custom home page with your email, the RSS feed from your blog, and other content. Having a custom wallpaper really does make it seem like home. Some people think having all that information readily available is distracting while others think that it’s a handy way to check on everything at once, allowing you to move on quickly to the tasks at hand!
Yes, I always find the poll results interesting. Wonder of Tech readers are fascinating bunch! 🙂
It’s something that we don’t think about that often, is it?
I don’t usually close my browser, keeps it minimized and use the sleep option instead of shutting down the computer.
This way I can get back to my laptop, without going through the hurdles of switching it on (I know that it takes power to keep it on, but I have a pretty old laptop, it takes some time to load it back up).
And yes, Internet providers have taken the freedom of resetting our homepage (some with permission, others without).
What about you Carolyn? What homepage do you use?
But, my homepage is the new tab page of Chrome. I just like it. If I were to set a homepage, it would either be my blog page or my email inbox.
Hi Jeevan, So you never shut down your computer or browsers? I know a friend who does that too. My computer is rubbish coming out of sleep so I have to reboot if it goes into sleep mode. But my laptop hinge broke this morning so a new computer may be soon in my future. I was hoping to hold out until the end of the year, but I don’t think it’s going to make it.
Do you have widgets on your Chrome home page? I have them but I don’t find them very useful. Maybe I just am not using the right ones!
I mostly use Chrome and I have it set up to open up the tabs I was using when I shut it down. Very often I am in the middle of research for an upcoming article when I’m interrupted so I want to re-open the pages I was looking at before.
On Firefox I have My Yahoo open as my home page. I have it customized and really like using it for a glance at a lot of important information at once.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been thinking about my home page. I used to set it to a Norwegian newspaper, so I can take a look at the news when I first started browsing. And then I set it to my blog, but I’ve ended up setting it to blank. This way it loads fast, and I’m most of the time doing different things (I’m focused) every time I launch my browser. This way I won’t start reading news when I’m suppose to do something else, or checking facebook or whatever 🙂
Hi Jens, You’re not alone. Many people take their home page for granted, but since you see it so often, it should be what you want it to be.
I can see the blank page working well for you. You can start your browsing with a clear head, uncluttered by distractions.
I like having easy access to my past tabs or instant news feeds. With tech news happening constantly, having tech news feeds on my home page helps me keep up with all of the latest developments!
There has to be an IE exception to the rule.
*Unless your browser is IE*, in which case, the best suited page to be your homepage is the blank page. Because it takes the least time to load.
Hi iRewardChart, Good point, a blank page takes the least time to load. Opening multiple tabs from your last browsing session can take quite a while which may be why IE doesn’t offer it as an alternative to opening your home page when you launch IE.
Hi Carolyn,
I use trusty old Google mainly because I open my gmail every morning so why not just have it on that page. Now I’ve set my Mom’s up for the local paper because she likes to check it every morning.
I do find it annoying when you’ll upload some things from time to time and they’ve taken it upon themselves to change your home page. I always do my best to uncheck all that stuff but they seem to make their way through anyway.
I do like the way you can customize them though if you want. Ah, technology. You’ve got to love them.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Do you use iGoogle as your home page with custom content or do you use google.com? If you use iGoogle, then you probably wouldn’t consider it “trusty” as they are closing it down next year. I think a lot of people are really going to miss iGoogle!
That’s great that you set your mom’s home page to her local paper. That saves her time every day having to navigate to that site. Even if she has bookmarked it, that’s wasted time.
Yes, you’re right, I love it when tech can make your life simpler and having your home page just where you want it can make life simple! 🙂
I do not use iGoogle and never have so I guess I’m happy I didn’t now. Right!
That’s great news, Adrienne. That way you won’t miss it when it’s gone! 🙂
I have learned a few things about what sort of things people were looking at all because of the “restore tabs” feature. Quite educational. 😉
Hi Josh, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re exactly right. You should only choose this option if you have nothing to hide and if your computer is private!
Carolyn – I have always been very particular about my browser home page. I always have it customized to my favorite website (u know which one!!!). I hate such service providers stealing their way into our system files, very cheap.
I havent yet tried the various other setup customs you have mentioned, thanks for bringing this up.
Hi Praveen, Yes, it seems many bloggers have their blogs set as their home page. It makes a lot of sense because we spend so much time on our blogs and want to be responsive to our commenters.
You may be able to have the best of both worlds by customizing a home page where you get an RSS feed of your blog as part of the content. Just a thought. 🙂
Hi Carolyn
Never think to much about my home page until it disappears after I download a new Firefox version and sometimes it doesn’t show up. Actually, I get a little upset and wonder if I can get it back. I use AT&T TV guide. Not that I look at it much, but it is set up and I don’t have to go through a song and dance to see what is on that night…if I take the time to check it out. It is just there like an old friend! It is irritating when another company decides what is best for us and then we have to go about putting back what we want.
Have a nice day.
Mary
Hi Mary, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re right, it is upsetting to have your home page disappear and be replaced with another website. I’m glad you found a website that works well for you. It’s great that you feel that your home page is really like a home for you. I think that’s why people get so upset whenever Facebook makes a change. We want to have our sites be familiar like an old friend. We get comfortable with what we know and then it’s upsetting when our comfort zone is shattered.
Thanks for stopping by today and sharing your thoughts with us, Mary!
Hi Carolyn,
A home is a home,there is no place which can change its place.
Now coming to the post,setting our home page lets us keep accessing quickly anything of personal interest.I have put my home page on different browser so that i can get everything easily. I have set “My Yahoo” for IE,Google for Chrome,G-mail for Mozilla this way i can keep track of everything in a much easier way.
Hi Aditya, That’s a great idea, having different home pages for different browsers. That way you can have your information quickly and easily available when you launch your browsers.
Well, because I reside on my office laptop, my homepage is what I call a ‘dashboard.’ It shows my production, my commission for the month, my accounts, etc, etc, etc.
I use IE some, but have a tab for Google Chrome as that is where all my ‘stuff’ is. All of my social, LUI website, Hootsuite, etc resides in here.
Early on I had a problem responding to posts on Livefyre from IE and switched to Chrome; no more problems….:).
Sorry I don’t have a cool homepage, but it does let me know how my bidness is doing.
Hi Bill, No need to have a cool home page, just so long as it works for you. Your business home page sounds as if it does just that, while your Chrome home page lets you take care of your online matters.
You’re right, changing browsers can solve a lot of problems. It’s handy to have more than one browser available on your computer. :-bd
My home page is Google, because I use the internet mostly for getting information!
Hi Lindsay, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re not alone. Google seems to be a favorite website for many Wonder of Tech readers! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
For the past 8 to 9 months I only use Google Chrome as my brower, because I can be distracted rather easily and Google Chrome as NO distraction what so ever, so that is the perfect option for someone like me 🙂
I used to have Yahoo page as my home page and while I was always up to the latest news it could be distracting to me and I would get lost in something that interested me and forget what I was about to do.
So, if you’re like me, using Google Chrome as your home page offers you no distraction. As blank as possible 🙂
Hi Sylviane, Yes, I can succumb to distraction, but I also like to know what’s going on in the world, so I use My Yahoo as my home page on Firefox. On Chrome, which is my main browser for work, I have my tabs re-open to where they were before instead of opening to my home page. My home page on Chrome is The Wonder of Tech so I can access it easily! :-bd
Such little differences as setting the right home page, yet such big time and sanity changing effects, Carolyn!
Hi Ana, You’re right. Taking these simple steps can make our life much easier! :-bd
Thanks Carolyn for the information. You\’re right most people don\’t even setup their homepage. I like to have my homepage setup to Google. This makes it very convenient for me to do my searches.
Hi Jake, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, Google seems to be a favorite website for home pages. Maybe Google didn’t need iGoogle any more because so many people were using Google instead! 🙂
Carolyn,
It’s always been one of the first things I have checked out when changing browsers or internet providers. It’s all about personality and showing what your prefer when my computer opens up. I like to be greeted currently with my website so I can check on comments and make sure there aren’t any problems that I am not aware of. In fact because I do this I was able to notice rather quickly that my comment weren’t working on my site. I wouldn’t have known it either if i hadn’t logged straight into the site (not admin either) to be able to see it. I even take it a step further and will toggle back and forth between different browsers to check and see it’s running in them too when I start up the system. (I wish that finding the problem took me as little time to correct it at is did finding it…lol)
Aaron
Hi Aaron, great idea to open a browser with your blog without being logged in. That way you see what your users see. Did you ever discover what the problem was? That would be very frustrating, thinking that you were responding to readers when they thought you were ignoring them!
Carolyn,
I am using Elegant Themes for my blog and they recently had an update to their themes. The new theme was missing one line of code compared to the old theme. I wish I could say they had been helpful on their forum but they were not. I had to read through (literally over 1000) posts to find out it was an old issue and I just needed to add the missing line back in.
Aaron
Hi Aaron, That seems like a lot of work, but it’s great that you know how to code to solve the problem. Did you share your solution with the developer? They should give you a free theme!
Haha! Isn’t it funny how we forget about all the ways we’ve personalized our computer and software until there’s an upgrade or we’re back to default settings for whatever reason. =P Personally, I prefer the “blank page” for speediest start-up, although I like how Chrome actually presents me “Most Visited” pages and Apps. =)
Hi Samantha, Yes, you’re right, we see our home page every day, but we tend to take it for granted. If you want your browser to start quickly, the blank page is the way to go.
It sounds as if you have a good combination with Google showing you the Most Visited sites and apps. Chances are that’s where you’ll be headed! :=bd