For the past 10 years, I’ve tended to use MSN as the homepage for all my browsers, no matter which browser, or operating system.  I became used to it after a time of using MSN dial up service, and did not really look around to change. I have looked at the others available over the years, so I know the changes they have been through, but nothing made me want to switch.

At the outset of internet usage for non-collegiates, I was frequenting AOL, as I had used them for dial up service before MSN, but the interface was always poor, and a bit too precious for my taste. Jamming many things together without regard to readability is not my idea of fine design. AOL stays that way today, except for the fact that the ‘angry fruit salad’ color schemes have been dropped in favor of pastels that would make any designer proud.

Yahoo, once the king of start pages, is today, a jumbled mess of things put together by a fifth grader (and I’m being kind with that grading scale). I remember the days when its categories were the entire front page, and you could easily navigate – no retelling of the news in any fashion, and most I know liked it that way – but it did not really fit that idea of a portal until it added the cheesy news stories.

MSN, although a part of the company that has, over time, evoked more hate from me than any other emotion, has been steadfastly my choice until lately. The subdued hues of the pages, and the carefully planned pages caused me to stay there for more time than anywhere else. But today, the number of little things I don’t like about it has added that straw to the camel’s back. I am so tired of being told that my browser is not supported, because I choose to use Opera, and avoid any problems with nasty ActiveX sites, and like the idea of a browser that is most compliant to established standards. I somehow think that if MSNBC, another Microsoft venture, can be Opera-friendly , MSN could be too. The other thing that springs immediately to mind is the way that MSN uses groups of pictures as part of a story, and then makes the user wait 60-90 seconds between switching of pics. This is independent of browser, or connection speed. Very bad.

As a Verizon DSL customer (as of this moment), I have tried to give their home page a fair shot, but try as it might, the page keeps the shameless self-promotion at the top of its goals. Too bad, as since I have been a salesman, trained to know certain things considered part of the sales process, I can easily say that one thing a good salesman does is shut up once the customer has accepted the sale. Verizon still has not learned this – if they had it would be realized that since you are on their page, you have about an Ivory soap percentage of being a customer, no further selling is needed.  (For those younger, or not possessed of great attention spans, Ivory bar soap used to stress in its commercials that it was 99.44 % pure.)

I have been trying out the Google News page, and it gives good news, doesn’t crowd it too much together, and avoids any devices to hold me on a certain page for a length of time ( MSN and pics). It also follows a layout style that reminds me of the New York Times – not a bad thing to shoot for, in my estimation.

I think I have a new start page – for sure.

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Quote of the day:

Some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts. - Jim Morrison

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