Google - Less is more

[#1]

How many of us have Google as their homepage? I know I do. Why though? Well, the reason I've had Google as my homepage since I can remember is because there's nothing to it; it's not busy advertising, or flashing tempting links at me. If I want the news I'll search for it. I don't need it served up to me. A recent report showed that 92% of us here in the UK use Google as our search engine. Do the other search options such as Yahoo, Bing and Ask, who fight for the other 8%, not see the big hint here? After all, what do you want a search engine for? To search, of course. Keeping it plain and simple has worked wonders for Google and I think that's what makes it so popular. A plain white background and a search box is all you need. We buy a kettle to boil water, we don't need bells and whistles on it. I suspect the kettles that do have bells and whistles on sell a whole lot less than the ones that do the job we want it for, just to boil water, nothing else. Google certainly seem to have the gift when it comes to knowing what we need, and with the release of Google+ I would certainly start thinking about selling my Facebook shares, if I had any.

[#2]

I ditched Facebook over a year ago and havent missed it one bit. I am using Google+ and think its great, as long as they dont mess with it (pokes, superpokes, megapokes, farms, vampires etc etc etc) i will continue to use it.

[#3]

i use PN as my home page saves a lot of trouble finding help etc when needed.

[#4]

I have Google as my home page, Is Google going to take over the world?

[#5]

I absolutely agree about the virtue of simplicity. I also have Google (with just a bit of extra Firefox branding) as my home page.

[#6]

i used to use google up untill they became the latest in big brother spies. With there java scripts watching your every click

[#7]

I completely agree with you about the plain and simple. I use Google as my homepage. However I have succumbed to having kettles with bells and whistles, i.e. colour changing and the lightning feature!

[#8]

I've never come across a kettle with a bell. But kettles with whistles used to be pretty common, not so many years ago. Actually, they were not just "common", they were *essential*. A coal or gas kettle doesn't turn itself off when it reaches boiling point. Doesn't even turn itself off when it has boiled itself dry. It just carries on burning until it has a hole in the bottom. At which point, the only cure is a new kettle. None of this detracts from your original point of course. Uncluttered is good, and something that more web sites should aim for. Please webmasters, no flash, animations or other distractions on pages with reading matter. Even if the flash performs a useful purpose (and it rarely does) it shouldn't start animating until the user *asks* it to. But there's also another, even more essential requirement. One that webmasters these days frequently forget. Thats *no* javascript and no use of third party scripts unless it really isn't possible to do without. Nine times out of ten, javascript is only "required" to enable the site's spyware. Everything else could and should work even in firefox with flashblock and noscript.

[#9]

I have used Altavista for years as it is even more minimalist then Google so it loads quicker and uses less bandwidth (this did matter a lot when I was on dialup many years ago and I have never changed since).

[#10]

If you use windows7 you don't need a home page, it gives you a selection to choose from of you most visited pages. Yes, I also hate the flashy adverts, very irritating.

[#11]

steve74 said: Is Google going to take over the world? Not if Tesco get there first!

[#12]

Whenever I open my browser it just shows a blank page, and if I do need to search for something I use IXquick for privacy reasons - http://ixquick.com/eng/protect-privacy.html If you follow the link it is worth having a look at the AOL database to see what information some search engines are collecting about you and how you can build a profile on people just from search data.