Internet Quick Reference Guide

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A Quick Study in Start Page Efficiency and the Role of the Start Page as an Entry Point to the Web

Introduction

A common mistake of custom start page creators is to try to squeeze in a list of functionality onto a start page in what is typically a misguided effort to create a kind of “home base” feel for the user. As if the entire internet can be centralized onto one page. But this strategy goes against everything a proper start page is and is supposed to do if we truly think about it and ask ourselves “What is a start page and what exactly is it supposed to do?”

Put succinctly, an effective start page is made up of a collection of links. That’s it. It’s not a search engine. Typically a user of a start page already knows where online they want to go; hence the preset destination links. (Should an internet user not have a set destination in mind upon opening a start page, preset links to some general search terms would probably serve the start page user better than an empty search box.)  And nor is a start page a clock or a weather widget. It’s a browser starting point that facilitates speedy access to all of the above and more but it’s not any of those things. Trying to make a start page incorporate or be any of those things, even in part, is to defeat its two primary purposes: Speed and nearly effortless access to websites. I will come back to what constitutes an effective start page later. But first let’s look at why some features commonly incorporated into start pages are more misplaced elements than necessary tools.

The misguided plague of the search box

Take the search box. What could be the point of adding a search box to a start page when every browser worth its salt and in which a start page exists already has a search box in the address bar? And that search box can be set to nearly any search engine the user prefers. An additional search box on the start page itself would be unnecessarily redundant and just an extra element to load when launching your browser, slowing down the loading of the start page. See the screen of protopage for an example of dual search boxes accompanied by the added element of a weather widget:

Furthermore, it must be said, an effective start page never expects its user to type a search for a website. This might seem an intuitive action for most internet users but typing into a search box in order to get to a specific website is a far slower and labour intensive way to get there than is gliding a mouse cursor over a text link and clicking. Try that experiment yourself. You will be hard pressed not to notice that typing is egregiously the slower and more labour intensive method. First you have to find the search box. Then, if the cursor is not placed inside the search box by default, the user must hover the mouse cursor over the text box and click. Then the user has to type the text or url of whatever they are looking to find. Then hit enter. Along the way, all these steps can be plagued and slowed by a typically annoying bevy of missed clicks and typos that require the user to repeat actions, look up at the screen, down at the the keyboard and correct typing mistakes. So slow and tedious. We’ve all experienced this and, typically, on a daily basis. To be sure, the search box has its use and purpose. But as an element on a start page, it’s redundant and defeating to the purpose of a start page. 

A similar accusation of redundancy can be leveled at those start page creators who also include the date and time or a weather update on their pages. Most, if not all,  computers today have these features built-in. On the Apple desktop I am writing this article now, the current date and time is always visible, as it is most surely on the computer or mobile device on which you are currently reading these words. And I can tap into my local weather through my desktop by simply adding my location so the weather will be served up with a simple click of the desktop status bar. Adding such information to a start page would be adding redundant and unnecessary screen junk to something that is essentially not intended to serve up such information. 

Under the Cursor - Maximizing Page Real Estate ... The IQRG.org Start Page Philosophy

• What a proper start page is and does

A powerful start page is made up of highly visible text links to relevant websites, which enable the quickest and most effortless access to those sites for the user.  For some power users, this translates into a start page filled with as many website links as possible that cover a broad field of internet destinations and categories but not so many links that it inconveniently effects the load time of the start page. A good start page should essentially be a collection of worm holes to different destinations in cyberspace, whether those links are personalized or more general. It’s all about speed and streamlining the journey to a point that requires the minimal of energy exertion from the user. 

 In this context, an even yet more powerful concept in start page efficiency is maximizing visible page real estate with scrolling. With speed scrolling - available through IQRG’s start page themes - a single link space need not necessarily be reserved for a single link. In such a start page configuration, scrolling can occur so speedily that several links can successively pop into and out of what is essentially the same space to the user with a lightning speed that greatly magnifies start page efficiency under the well-practiced hand. A slight forward or backward movement of the mouse wheel brings the link to the user in a horizontal sweep of the page as the links enter view under the user's motionless cursor, as opposed to the user working to get to the links by either dragging vertical scroll bars or lifting a hand off the mouse to arrow down. Any new user of an IQRG start page who gives themselves a few weeks of use will see the difference. These scrolling start pages are internet access efficiency machines that eliminate as much laborious typing and missteps as possible for the user to the point where, by comparison, the old heaviness involved in typing a search for a specific website is readily apparent afterward. With a scrolling start page, links move largely under and to the cursor instead of the cursor to a text box and then it’s just a swift movement to click on the desired destination link. Cursor placement, typing, typos, backspacing to correct typos, retyping, etc…all that unnecessary work just to get somewhere on the internet is eliminated by a well-designed start page. 

Conclusion

• An efficient start page sticks to its job

A key approach to designing an efficient start page is to remember that the start page has its job and the destination websites the start page links to have theirs. In other words, the start page is not here to do the job of a search engine or clock or weather feed or anything other than to provide links to the online information and utilities a user wants to view and utilize.