HomePage

Yahoo may be drawing some inspiration from Microsoft in its latest home page redesign.

The Internet search and media company is testing out a new version of its home page that uses larger tiles similar to Microsoft's Windows 8, according to AllThingsD.

The redesign seems better suited for touch-screen devices, a smart move with the increasing proliferation of tablets and other touch-friendly "hybrid" devices coming from the launch of Windows 8, alongside iPads and smartphones with increasingly larger displays.

The approach uses large photos stacked at the top of the page, similar to both Windows 8's … Read more

A number of improvements that Mozilla has built into today's new Firefox release find the browser playing catch-up, treading water, and forging ahead all at the same time.

If it sounds like a near-impossible juggling act to you, you're not alone.

Firefox 13 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux) comes with feature changes and tweaks under the hood. The new features include a redesigned New Tab page that shows you thumbnails of your frequently-visited sites, often dubbed Speed Dial in honor of Opera's take on the feature. Firefox is the last of the major browsers to get some … Read more

Firefox 13 has moved to the browser's beta channel today, bringing with it default support for SPDY, some elbow grease on default landing pages like the Home page, and better memory management for open tabs.

Firefox 13 beta can be downloaded for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Having SPDY active by default means that, for sites that support it, they will appear in your browser faster than before. SPDY is also a more secure protocol than HTTP, which it's the successor to, because it uses SSL encryption for all sites.

The new Home page, available at about:home, puts … Read more

Oh, forget all that talk of Google+ and its uncomfortably human concept called "real-life sharing."

Here is something far more startling: Google has launched a new home page today. Yes, today.

In a stealthy little blog post, Google's digital creative director, Chris Wiggins, expounded on this seminal advancement with both enthusiasm and detail.

The new home page has a smaller logo--one can only imagine they must have tried at least 3,042 different sizes--and is supposed to be based on merely three guiding principles: focus, elasticity, and effortlessness.

Elasticity is perhaps the easiest to grasp. The idea … Read more

Are there things you used to do in the 1990s but just don't do any more? I'm thinking admiring Britney Spears. I'm thinking investing in tech stocks. I'm thinking clicking on Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

This is an important question today, as a stunning and, frankly, revolutionary development in search has been spotted in Finland.

The remarkable sleuths at Google Operating System espied a Google home page without the "I'm Feeling Lucky" exhortation.

Naturally, Google, being a company that loves to examine every shade of blue that exists … Read more

Microsoft is testing a new version of its home page that completely changes its lineup of products and services depending on whether you're there for "work" or "home."

While the idea of a custom-tailored site is nothing revolutionary, Microsoft has managed to go about it in a rather creative way, making use of a Web-based variant of its "Metro" UI that has the page slide from side to side instead of reloading, or having users scroll downward. The same look and feel as can be found in Windows Phone 7 and the recently refreshed Surface computer, … Read more

eBay is getting ready for the holidays with a new take on its home page and a new shared gift-giving feature.

The auction site refreshed its home page yesterday with the goal of helping people find and buy items more quickly and easily. The redesign, which eBay said was months in the making, offers a different look and feel to the home page as well as several behind-the-scenes changes.

eBay's search functionality is trying to be smarter by pushing the exact product you're seeking to the top of the results. You can also now find an item by … Read more

Today, BoomTown interviewed AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, along with NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, at the Online News Association Conference in Washington, D.C., about the future of journalism on the Web.

Afterward, I talked to him about the future of content on AOL, most particularly its new home page revamp that focuses intently on editorial "curation," rather than a more social direction being taken by rival Yahoo.

I also got a short demo of the new home page, which is rolling out right now, instead of Monday as has been reported.

The new version-with a clean and spare … Read more

Through the various changes to Apple's online services (iTools, .Mac, and MobileMe), Apple still retained the option to access photos, movies, and other shared files via Web sites created in the older .Mac "home page" feature, but in an e-mail announcement to .Mac subscribers this morning, Apple announced it will be discontinuing this support on November 8.

Dear MobileMe member,

Over a year ago, we retired the .Mac HomePage application for publishing new pages, but allowed previously published pages to remain viewable on the Web. On November 8, 2010, we will discontinue online viewing of photos, movies, … Read more