The changing of the home page: Slashdot to NetVibes
It’s been at least six years since I changed the web site which is automatically loaded when I open my browser of choice. I changed to Slashdot.org some time in 2001 when I got my first PC. I was using Internet Explorer 5 on Windows ME in those days. Previously, I’d been using Netscape 4 on Mac OS 8.5 and used Google as my home page.
I’ve kept it on Slashdot for so long because I liked to be able to read the latest articles on the tech news site every time I fired up my browser. Nowadays, though, I don’t start a new browser window very often. I generally leave Firefox open all the time (I’ve got 3 GB of RAM, sometimes Firefox will eat 300 MB of it). Also, the advent of RSS and ATOM news feeds keeps me on top of the news, and Slashdot’s Slashdotomatic AIM bot sends me a message each time a new story is posted.
There’s been a lot of hullabaloo about NetVibes, a site designed to be a personalized home page, complete with news feeds, mail checking (Gmail and IMAP included!), eBay auction watching, and even Facebook watching. I’ve customized my own home page with it, and I’m going to try it out for a few weeks while relying on news feeds for my Slashdot needs.
Colin Dean:
Actually, Firefox has been using 600 MB lately.
My switch to Opera might come sooner…
27 August 2007, 3:33 pmSean:
Ick. 600MB is disgusting.
27 August 2007, 4:32 pm