Every morning when I wake up, I open my eyes to see a ceiling (since I normally lay on my back for a while, trying to wake up). My ceiling, as most ceilings are, is clean, white and free of any clutter. For me, it represents a “clean start of the day,” the day that will start getting cluttered as I move along towards the night. I get this similar “clean start of the day” feeling when I open my Internet browser, because the first thing I see is the Google.com start page.
As most of us know, Google is one of the most popular and most powerful search engines on the web. In fact, it is so popular it has become a slang term, for ex. “I Google-d my landlord before I moved in.” Behind its simple and stark clean homepage, Google packs a powerhouse of options for virtually any possible use of the Internet.
So what is the deal with this simple 1996-ish homepage? Honestly, I don’t know. But allow me to address my opinion on it (please note: I am not going to go into the whole nitty-gritty of what Google can do for you, just the opinion of its homepage). I like it. As mentioned above, Google is the start of my daily web browsing.
By default, Google’s home page contains a logo, a search box, and a handful of links. You could customize it with all kinds of other information if you’d like (I don’t). Yahoo (another popular search engine), on the other hand, immediately spits out a World (literally) of information, plus banners and ads. And Bing (the search engine option from Microsoft)… well, not only do its search results shock me with its “over-intuitiveness”, but it’s “Microsoft-ness” makes me slightly uncomfortable.
I’m a web designer, so my job and my life are intertwined with the Internet. In search of relevant information I browse through multiple pages, portals, websites, blogs, forums, videos, emails, social outlets, unsocial outlets, and many, many, many etceteras. By the end of the day, I am loaded with all kinds of necessary and unnecessary information. So when I take my first step on the path of daily info web-quest, I prefer for it to start somewhere clean, clear, and direct.
I’ll stick with google.com, simple as that. I like to start my day off with a clean slate. I love it–at least for now. (Please note, again: I do not, by any means, promote Google as your browser’s home page. This is just my personal opinion. Happy browsing!)
By: Max Kunakhovich