What's Your Home Page?

Every weekday morning, I boot up my PC, open up Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer, and get things going for the work day. In Outlook, my e-mails rapidly begin flooding in, one by one....information on the latest CE products, event invitations and press briefings, and internal memos from colleagues. Over in the Web world, my browser opens up, every single time, to the very same page: http://www.marketnews.ca/. Selecting this "home" page is a pretty simple task, but you never really pay attention to just how influential that choice is.

Think about it: it's the very first page you see every morning. You might only scan it for a moment before jumping over to another site. But that page is what starts your day. It's what provides you with the news, the laughter, or the updates you require. It's also the page you always go back to with the simply push of the handy "home" button on the top, right corner of your screen; or perhaps even on your fancy keyboard.

My parents use Google.com as their home page, simply because we found they would often open up the browser and start typing questions or keywords right into the address bar! This way, they get exactly what they want right off the bat. But with additions like Windows Live Search, which is always right at your fingertips in the top, right hand corner for searches, the opportunities for more interesting home pages are endless.

So before you choose lightly, I'd suggest thinking long and hard about the page you decide upon. It's a good idea to pick a Website that's updated daily so that you always have something interesting (and new!) waiting for you upon arrival each morning; or when you re-open your browser after lunch. Maybe it's the day's news headlines. Maybe it's the lottery numbers. Maybe it's an update from your favourite retail store or tunes streaming from an Internet radio station. Either way, the choice has the potential to brighten your day before you even begin a full day's worth of tasks.

So what's your home page? If you're not sure how to select one, here's how: open up Internet Explorer; click on "Tools" and then "Internet Options". The home page option is the first one that appears. Just type in the address you want IE to default to every time you open up the browser, and click "Apply" and then "OK" in the bottom, right of the pop-up window. And you're all set! Happy choosing!

Google Takes on the Browser

The company has tackled everything else in the Web world, so why not take a stab at creating a browser? Google is doing just that with Chrome, a new Web browser that promises to "get out of your way and get you where you want to go."

Google has built Chrome on the premise that the browser isn't really that important; it's just a "tool to run the important stuff." Given this, Chrome is designed to be clean, stable, and fast-loading, with the ability to run the most sophisticated, rich content-based Websites out there.

Google argues that there's an increasing need for such a browser given that Web pages today are no longer just static pages; they're full-fledged applications running everything from moving video to chat rooms. So not only do people need better support for running these "applications", but they also need the ability to run multiple applications (or Web pages) at a time without a reduction in speed and load time for the others.

As is customary with Google, the code will be open source so that others are free to use it (Google actually used components from Apple's Webkit and Mozilla's Firefox to create Chrome). Whether it will live up to its promises, or be able to rival popular browsers like Internet Explorer, remains to be seen.

A beta version of Chrome for Windows is available today, and instructions on where/how to download it will be made public at 11 a.m. this morning. Will you try it?

Top 10 Most Influential IT Products of the Past 25 Years

What have been the most influential information technology (IT) products of the past quarter-century? The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) posed this very question to 471 IT industry professionals and, no surprise, Microsoft creations led the list, snagging four of the top five spots. Also not surprising, the only non-Microsoft product to break into the top five was Apple’s iPod: a product that has been as influential in the consumer electronics space as it has been in IT.

Apple’s iPod was actually tied with Microsoft Excel for the fourth spot, with 49 per cent of the professionals surveyed citing each as the most influential product. Coming in third at 50 per cent is Microsoft’s Windows 95, which was apparently the most widely used operating system. (Note to anyone still using Win95: it’s probably about time to upgrade!) Second, at 56 per cent, is the most widely used word processing application: Microsoft Word.

What product topped the list, having been cited by 66 per cent of the IT professionals surveyed? None other than Internet Explorer, the browser used to help you do everything from surf news and gossip Websites, to research products, and view streaming video. The first IE browser was launched in 1995, and, within a few years, it had become, and still remains, the predominant browser on the market.

Other products that made the list include Research in Motion’s BlackBerry (39 per cent); Adobe Photoshop (35 per cent); McAfee VirusScan (32 per cent); Netscape Navigator (31 per cent); and PalmPilot (31 per cent).

What would you deem the most influential IT product of the past 25 years?