The web browser has slowly evolved from being just one more program on our hard drive to becoming almost the only tool you’ll ever need, thanks to the popularity of web apps. This is why it’s important to keep it perfectly updated, and tailor it according to your needs and tastes. One of these small customization details is the browser home page, that is, the first web page that loads when launching the browser; something our reader David seemed to have some problems with:
I want to delete the Google search page from my Firefox home page. Don’t quite know how it got there in the first place but I want to delete it. Please advise how I can do this and thanks!
I must say I don’t really understand what David meant by ‘deleting’ the home page, but assuming that what he wants to do is changing the home page, it’s quite easy: simply open Firefox, go to Tools > Options and in the Main tab, enter the address of your preferred website in the ‘Home Page‘ text field.
Besides this basic functionality, there are other tricks you can use to spice up your browser home page. One of them is opening several webpages at the same when you launch the browser. All you have to do is entering the addresses of all the web pages you want to use as home pages in the same field described before, separating them with vertical bars.
An easier way to configure multiple home pages without having to type that much is opening all the web pages you want to use, then go to Tools > Options and click the ‘Use Current Pages‘ button.
Finally, there are also a few online services that provide you with highly customizable home pages where you can add widgets, links, RSS headlines and all sorts of information. iGoogle is probably the most popular, but you also have Netvibes, Symbaloo, HomepageStartup and PageFlakes, among many others.
Do you know any other tricks or web apps to improve your home page? Drop us a line and share them! Also, keep on sending all your problems, questions and doubts to ask@onsoftware.com so that we can provide handy solutions for you and the rest of the OnSoftware readers.
